After the full automation of metro line 1 in December 2012, a world first, we are meeting the same challenge with metro line 4. By 2022, it will become the second high-capacity metro line to be fully automated without interrupting traffic. Advancing at the same time and in coordination with the new southern extension of the line, a project to adapt the trains to all driving systems was launched in 2016.
With metro line 4, our engineers are once again illustrating their capacity to reinvent a metro line on behalf of both quality service – more trains in circulation during peak hours, greater regularity over the length of the line, and the capacity to increase the transport offer on the spur of the moment in case of heavy traffic – and safety, with the installation of high platform-edge barriers.
Concretely, the implementation of the automated train operating system requires conducting four interdependent projects, which must be minutely prepared and coordinated:
- The adaptation of infrastructure, with the installation of high platform-edge barriers (a first for an existing line) and a new centralised control room (PCC)
- The upgrading of transport infrastructure not linked to automation (track platforms, lateral signalling, civil engineering works) and the installation of appropriate audio-visual systems, notably video surveillance on board trains
- The complete renewal of the line’s rolling stock, with the commissioning of 52 automated trains with rubber tyres
- A new organisation of operations and maintenance. As with metro line 1, the project calls for a phase of mixed circulation during which automated trains will gradually replace manually-operated ones.