Rail Re-invented: PARIS Grand Paris: big thinking for the French capital

Grand Paris rail plans will take underground railways to new heights

Paris Charles de Gaule station

Paris Charles de Gaule station

Paris’s Line 14 forms the basis of the types of technologies to be used on the Grand Paris Express driverless metro lines.

Paris’s Line 14 forms the basis of the types of technologies to be used on the Grand Paris Express driverless metro lines.

Biting the bullet on expensive, transformational, railway schemes is something that mainland European governments have been good at, as exemplified by the development of national high speed rail networks in various countries. But in France attention has turned to capital city Paris, and bullets haven’t come much bigger and faster than that of Grand Paris Express, a plan to revolutionise urban railways there, with a price tag to match. Spiralling costs and delays in estimated completion...