Going underground: 10 Facts about the Paris Metro System
The Paris Metro is the city’s lifeline and connects the farthest reaches of Paris to the bustling city centre. With a total of 14 lines that stretch 214kms in length, it’s the second busiest metro system in Europe, after Moscow. We thought it would be fun to take a look at some obscure facts about the Paris Metro system that we bet you didn’t know. If anything, it’s good for the trivia...
- If you alight at the Arts et Metiers station, have a look at the platforms that were redesigned in 1994 by Belgian comic book artist François Schuiten. The ceiling and walls are decorated with riveted copper and fake portholes – to give the impression of a Jules Verne science fiction novel or even a submarine
- It is said that every building in Paris is within 500m of a metro station in Paris
- The metro now serves 6 million out of 10.5 million people in Paris and is nearly 115 years old – second oldest to London’s tube system
- Abbesses is the deepest metro station in Paris, at 40m below ground – Louis Vuitton even named a bag after this station
- The word ‘metro’, used in around 55 different countries, comes from the Paris Metropolitan
- The metro travels around 600,000 miles a day – that’s the equivalent of 10 times around the earth
- You’re allowed to take dogs on the metro – as long as they’re small, so leave your Alsatians at home and take the Chihuahua instead
- Within the 214km of tracks there are 21,400 directional arrows and indications, 3million miles of lightning cables and 23 million tiles
- The metro serves 3,9 million passengers a day and 1.5 billion people each year
- As well as the 245 working stations in the Paris metro there are a handful of ghost stations such as Arsenal, Haxo, or Porte Molitor which haven’t been in use for decades – look out; sometimes these are open to the public at fixed dates in the year
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