Ghost Stations of the Paris Metro
urbextour.com
urbextour.com
It's definitely one of the most interesting systems in the world, with a lot of hidden secrets. Despite years of systematic exploration, and having walked the length of the entire system, we were still finding artefacts.
For the interested, in my opinion the most complete writeups of the system was written by my exploring partner.
http://web.archive.org/web/20130513204844/http://www.sleepyc...
Or a worker we bumped into who said he knew we weren't painters because we didn't throw rocks at him, and thanked us kindly.
The most surprisingly was stumbling upon a 1930s train, the Sprague Thompson in mint condition, hiding in a section of metro that we'd overlooked for years...
Truly fantastic. Did you enter it ? I would die for such moments if I was an urbexplorer.
http://ninjito.com/_2012-04-07
When we turned the corner and saw it, I guess we nearly passed out, we'd been looking for it for years :)
And the site itself, wow.
Thinking of the million souls, early morning workers and late night lovers this venerable workhorse has carried is vertiginous.
These two images [1][2] show the same junction near St Martin station.
Note the patch in the ceiling in these two pictures: [3][4]
The pink graffito on the back wall in this [5] picture can still be seen years later if you zoom into this [6] picture.
A red graffito can be seen on the back wall here [7] (very small) and here [8].
[1]http://web.archive.org/web/20130513204844im_/http://sleepyci... [2]https://www.urbextour.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/21.jpg [3]http://web.archive.org/web/20130513204844im_/http://sleepyci... [4]https://www.urbextour.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/8-1.jpg [5]http://web.archive.org/web/20130513204844im_/http://sleepyci... [6]https://www.urbextour.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/58.jpg [7]http://web.archive.org/web/20130513204844im_/http://sleepyci... [8]https://www.urbextour.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/59.jpg
There are very interesting stories in the graffiti, representing generations of visits, and 'following' certain people, noticing where they'd been and not been.
Does anyone know if the system is still as accessible as it was in 2012? I know that at least in northern France and Belgium this type of exploration has become a lot more difficult due to more cameras and more police/security awareness.
Though that does not include stations part built and then never completed of which there are a fair few for London, unsure about Paris but I would imagine be some instances of part built or intended stations that never got finished. Indeed I had a look at seems at least two got built and never saw use - https://www.renfe-sncf.com/rw-en/blog/destinations/paris/vis...
The parent article does a good job at explaining the whys and hows.
For the stations that where actually open at some point, it was mainly a matter of optimization: new hubs being built, profitability, etc. The end of WWII has been the turning point for most them.
Porte des Lilas was a prototype station repurposed for shooting movies in a controlled environment.
Haxo was part of a failed project to connect two lines. It was never officially opened so we, locals, don't really consider it as a station.
The buff between Place d'Italie and Corvisart has never been a station. It's more of a curiosity than anything.
Not mentioned in the article are the former end-station of line 5 at Gare du Nord, now a training ground for metro drivers, Arsenal on line 5, Porte Maillot on line 1, and Molitor, which was never even connected to the surface.
I am not sure how popular the ghost stations of the métro, the prohibited sections of the catacombs, and the "petite ceinture" are with today's teens but they made Paris a gigantic interconnected playground back in the 80s/90s.
Edit: "Sprague" or Sprague Thompson is rolling stock dating back to 1908. There are one or two hidden very well in the system, with one still in mint, serviceable condition.
That particular train of Spragues, the one that is covered with paint, has been stored in many places over the years, without a clear intent as to its future, like the BOA prototype. The first time I saw it was in the Vaugirard yard, which wasn't exactly a walk-in, so that made it a hard target compared to the regular trains. When they moved it in the connexion between lines 7 and 10 it became a much easier target and a go-to place for just about everyone.
I'm afraid the RATP doesn't care much about that specific train.
As for types, yes, we have all of them. Very few of us care about historical importance but it might actually be more of an attractor than a detractor for those who do.
Couldn't understand if this specific one was "spared" for so long because it was well hidden, or because most painters considered it "too nice" to paint (or pointless, as it was rarely in service..)
The other ones (Monceau, etc) were obviously well and truly rinsed.
There's a few nice examples of preserved rolling stock in the RATP's "secret warehouse", but they only kept the head and trashed the wagons.
Vaugirard was definitely a nice yard, hard until we found a nicely hidden trapdoor-in-a-wall behind a 03..
Vaugirard was more of a "monte-en-l'air" business for some of us ;-).
And sure, les ateliers seemed to be affairs of bras-honneur ..
This is backwards: it's the graffiti vandals that don't care.
The catacomb came as a surprise, I knew it was there. I was not expecting to find a entrance to it randomly.
( you might know the place, where the ceinture collide with a easy catacombe entrance under a tunnel, in the XIIIeme )
I had some much fun finding old map. Mapping it myself … then realizing that a LOT of people where going there as well.
As a ex member of the rave / free party movement it’s was really close in spirit.
There was another one in the XVeme that I used to visit bi-monthly.
I wasn't much of a "cataphile" myself, but spending some times down there was a very common occupation in the 80s/90s. You could meet all kinds of people, down there.
You know… scouting, trespassing, chasing something or someone, being chased, the sounds, the smells, the "tick, tick, tick" dogs make while stamping on floor of a metro car, etc. There are specifics, of course, but the baseline is the same everywhere I have been.
Likewise the quiet moments between action when you're tucked into side tunnels, feeling the breeze and listening to distant trains rumbling by..
Turf fights?
Someone else in the thread mentioned throwing rocks, it was actually a shared hobby and a universal one at that.
As of last year, it was straight-forward to transition between the official park and the rest of the line on the north side of the park. Might need a shovel at the south side, but then you're quickly on active RATP property, with better access points across a few crossovers. Also a formalized access point somewhere near Montreuil where some old furniture was placed in just the right spot from street level.
Good place for berries and figs at the right time.
Several are now only for suburban trains. Others were closed when replacing lifts with escalators meant entrances had to be moved, and were now too close to the next station.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_and_unopened_Lo...
See also: http://cartometro.com/cartes/metro-tram-london/ , which marks the closed stations — you can usually see how close they are to other stations.
In the end, the other route was selected. The tunnel was initially used as a firing range for the national bank guards, and later transformed to a parking garage.
(The beginning of one of those lines actually got built and put into service, in the form of a one-station spur line branching off Hoyt-Schermerhorn in Brooklyn, and going to Court Street, where the line now stops. It was originally intended to continue into Manhattan and become the Second Avenue Line. Instead, it was operated for a time as a shuttle, then discontinued. Court St. Station is now the main site of the Transit Museum, which may reopen one of these days. There's now a rump Second Avenue Line recently put into service on the Upper East Side -- three stops of it -- but construction of the rest isn't fully funded, it's not planned to reach lower Manhattan for a few more decades, and there are no active plans to continue it into Brooklyn.)
What I will never forget was while I had to take the Metro in Paris to switch from one terminal station to another, the Metro rode trough some subterran depot/switching yard, which was a large rectangular hall, at least several 100 meters long, almost 100 wide, and 10s of meters high. Dark. Except for the signals, warning-lights, whatever in orange, white, yellow, red, green, blue lining all tracks and the ramps going up and down into and out of it. I'll never forget that, because it was so unexpected. Almost like the glide-path indicators during night approaching large airports, as seen from the cockpit. But below the ground. And not old and grimy at all. Modern, light concrete. Really very 'spacy'.
Maybe because it would be unwise to go there, because not abandoned? Anyways, at the times I rode through there it was empty, no other trains at all. Just the blank tracks and switches reflecting all those colored lights and signals.
I really wonder what and where exactly that was.
However, I needed to catch my train from the other terminus, so I capitulated and took the metro from some other large station which I can't remember anymore. What I do remember was desperation with the ticket machine there with instructions I couldn't really read at the time. Been lucky because there were some tourists there who spoke german, and they helped me with the thing. (Bling! Multipass!)
Arrived at Gare du Nord, had to go to some other 'Gare' which I also can't remember anymore. But at that time the trains to Spain over Hendaye/Irun departed from there. Which meanwhile changed, I guess.
You can _sort of_ "see" it in this very dark video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IzCeoqn3B8.
As for UE worthiness, I can certainly imagine someone doing long exposure shots down there, and capture the kind of impression you got, but it probably lacks the mystique of ghost stations and secret places you can feel in the parent article.
Had to be Sunday, late morning/early noon because i took a night train from Bonn/Cologne with sleeper cars(didn't slee at all!) over Belgium, where I only remember Liège and Charleroi, and nothing else until Paris. Can't remember exactly anymore how much time I wasted on foot in the city. Had to catch the train to Madrid over Hendaye/Irun in something like late noon, 14:xx.
So that was the timeframe. I remember feeling hot from schlepping two suitcases for several kilometers, crisscrossing Paris while the weather was good. Had to be June/July, otherwise no summer holidays :-)
Imagine sitting almost alone in the cab, on the right side. Driving trough some tunnel, suddenly going down noticably, which opens to some sort of ramp on the right side, where you can see a large open hall with almost no columns, dozens of tracks, at least several football fields long. On the opposite side also a ramp, also descending to the other side of the field of tracks. The ramps illuminated by orange lights spaced maybe 2 to 3 meters apart, on the ground, besides the tracks. In the 'field' between the dozen of parallel tracks elevated ways of metal mesh(gridiron?). Crossing the field of tracks on both ends and in the middle diagonal tracks and switches, making something like three X-es over that. Almost all metal surfaces shiny, reflecting. All the colored signals which were also there, mostly on the ground besides the tracks, some on poles between the tracks, some on the walls where the ramps come down. You moving from the left side, through the middle X to the right side, maybe for half a minute to short of a minute. All the lights and signals changing their reflections. Turning around, looking to the left side. Seeing the same play of reflections there. Another tunnel exiting from the middle of the field between the two end ramps. All rather dark if not for the signals and orange lights lining all tracks. Thinking... "Whoa! What was that?!" while moving up the ramp on the right side into another tunnel.
So that had to be some deep place, because at least the ramps on both ends on both sides descended down into it for at least two floors, and it had one tunnel in the middle of one end which I couldn't see much of, but it seemed level, no grade.
Anyways, I think I'll search for Paris Metro subterran infrastructure/depot/switching yard, or something like that.
Das lässt mir keine Ruhe! (deepl.com) Ça ne me laissera pas un instant de répit ! That gives me no peace!
From the looks of it, you arrived at Gare du Nord and departed from Gare d'Austerlitz. The best option would have been to take line 4 at Gare du Nord and switch to line 10 at Odéon until the terminus at Gare d'Austerlitz. There is nothing interesting on the first leg beside the staircase at Cité. The second leg gets more interesting at Cluny - La Sorbonne, where the two tracks become three, and right after Maubert - Mutualité, where the two tracks split to make way for a third track to go under them. That part is mentioned in the parent article as "two-level crotch". There are other interesting places on the same line, like the "triangle" between Porte d'Auteuil, Michel-Ange Molitor, and the Auteuil workshop but they are in the other direction. Another thing to note is that the tunnels of line 10 are painted in white, which makes it look cleaner than other lines.
Personally, I feel it's odd to combat graffiti by making it legal, but the result looks good to me.
In the Paris system, the majority of the mentioned stations still have traffic running through them. The architecture is maintained.
That’s it.
https://www.metafilter.com/135298/Ghost-Stations-of-the-Tube
It's definitely an oddity, most systems are unlit (Barcelona has entrances lit then nothing, Ukraine, Russia, etc all unlit).
Interestingly, unlit tunnels bring the advantage of if you're seen, the lights are turned on, giving you a clear warning sign to leave.
In the Paris system, you need to actively count the delay between trains to ensure traffic isn't cut. We had one or two encounters where we realised that it had been 4 minutes between trains when they we running on 2 minute intervals..