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Metro: soon there will be more trains on 4 very busy lines!

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The Editor

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Here’s some news that could change everything. On Wednesday, December 10th, Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) is set to review a new proposal regarding changes to the current metro services, in order to meet the new habits of users. This change could lead to a much-appreciated relief for some train lines.

Since the COVID crisis, the facts are clear: the habits of Paris metro passengers have changed. This shift can be explained by various factors, like the rise of remote work, leading to different usage rates and hours compared to those that were used as the reference by RATP to set their schedules. Fortunately, the service is expected to soon be enhanced during the peak times, to help everyone out.


Peak hours that no longer exist

A few years ago, it was easy to pinpoint with certainty the worst times to take the metro without the risk of being stepped on. The morning between 7 AM and 9 AM, and in the evening between 5 PM and 8 PM, from Monday to Friday. These were the "peak hours" defined...The work schedules used to involve a huge and regular crowd. However, in recent years, that's no longer the case, and it's not uncommon to see a packed metro in the middle of the day, on a night at 11 PM, or even on a weekend. For IDFM, it's therefore urgent that the RATP revisits the frequency of several of its lines.


4 lucky lines to be boosted soon

Specifically, lines 5, 9, 11, and 12 are the main focus of RATP. The goal is simple: increase the number of trains to reduce the wait times between each train from 15 seconds to 1 minute 30 depending on the lines and times of day. For example, on line 9, IDFM has requested that the wait time between 8:30 PM and 12:30 AM be reduced from 5 minutes to 4 minutes 30 seconds on weekends. Overall, line 5 is expected to see the most significant boost, with extra trains running every day, all day long.

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Une publication partagée par Bahin Fou (@clembahin_)

Just to remind you, 3 out of the 4 affected lines (lines 5, 9, and 12) had already seen their service boosted on weekends last April, making it possible to gain up to 3 trains per hour at times. Fingers crossed that the project gets the green light from RATP again, and hopefully it will ease our daily commutes a bit.