On the central trunk frequency in rush hour is a departure every 90s, which means there's almost constantly a train at the station.
It's like a magic trick!
Every other line has dedicated tracks. There can and often are branches, but usually they're 2-3 at most per "side" of the central trunk, with the exception of the unwieldly spaghetti that used to be the RER C between the simplification of it, which reduced it to three branches per side as well.
* RER A in question has two branches to the east, and three to the west.
* B has 2.5 to the south and 2 to the north
* D has 2-3 to the south and one to the north
* E has two to the east, and for now one to the west (I think there will be 1.5 in the end when it's all finished)
So not at all comparable to the S-Bahns that more often than not get all forced into a single tunnel resulting in atrocious frequency on the branches. As an example, frenquency on the branches in rush hour on the A is 5 minutes at most on the least frequented branches. At the worst of times, late at night on the least frequented branches of the least frequented lines you're looking into 20-30 minutes frequency, which isn't great, but isn't terrible either for a station in the middle of nowhere far away on the C, D or E.
I suppose I should say at this point that I live in the USA. And not only in the USA, but in New Mexico :)
> late at night on the least frequented branches of the least frequented lines you're looking into 20-30 minutes frequency
Ditto. This doesn't sound that different from what I remember growing up on the Central Line coming in from the NE of London. Doesn't sound that bad, though more is generally better, I suppose.
Paris has such a good public transport system, and now also cycling infrastructure, that something like 50% of young adults (<30y) don't even have a driving license !
Here's an example... from 12 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCj0yQacKVE
Nowadays these older trains have been deprecated and only double-deckers run the line.