Another of the many great European rail infrastructure projects . Wonderful what they do across the pond - https://youtu.be/ZjuMcWwMqPk
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10633 posts
Very informative. This reminds me of videos we saw when the RER A and B were being constructed fifty years. Seemed futuristic, but now it's overcrowded reality.
To answer Tim: there had been plans for a couple of decades to build a large international airport in the west of the country, near Nantes, and link it to Paris by high-speed rail. But due to strong opposition and protests, the plans were finally dropped. Plans for a T4 at CDG are uncertain now, too. The government isn't certain future air traffic will justify another terminal after COVID.
Posted by
Olympia, WA, USA
6713 posts
Very impressive plan, $45 billion to more than double the Metro system and connect outlying places without going through the city center. Except for airport access, it doesn't look like it will make much difference to tourists -- except by perhaps reducing crowding on the older central-city lines. Presumably the new lines will be fully accessible, with elevators and escalators. Maybe someday the RATP will be able to provide that kind of accessibility on the older lines as well.
Seattle had a bad experience with one of those tunnel-boring machines a few years back -- breakdown held up its multi-billion-dollar project for at least a year I think. But Paris is using many more of them. Thanks for posting the video, Steven.