112-493: Metroland may refer to: Metro-land , an informal name for a suburban area north-west of London, England served by the Metropolitan Line Metro-land (1973 film) , a BBC TV documentary (1973) by Sir John Betjeman about the area Metroland (novel) , a book by Julian Barnes where the subject comes from that part of London Metroland (film) ,
224-537: A merger of Line 3bis and Line 7bis , Line 12 , as well as a new proposed Line 19 in the city's outer suburbs. Besides the Métro, central Paris and its urban area are served by five RER lines (602 km or 374 mi with 257 stations), fourteen tramway lines (186.6 km or 115.9 mi with 278 stations), nine Transilien suburban trains (1,299 km or 807 mi with 392 stations), in addition to three VAL lines at Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport , making Paris one of
336-681: A 1997 film based on the Julian Barnes novel Metroland (soundtrack) , the soundtrack by Mark Knopfler Metroland Media Group , a publisher of daily and community newspapers in Canada "Metroland", a song by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark from the album English Electric Metroland (newspaper) , a defunct alternative newsweekly published in Albany, New York, whose editorial staff largely formed its successor The Alt Metroland,
448-452: A 20 meters (65 ft 7 in)-wide railroad. The last remaining hurdle was the city's concern about national interference in its urban rail system. The city commissioned renowned engineer Jean-Baptiste Berlier , who designed Paris' postal network of pneumatic tubes, to design and plan its rail system in the early 1890s. Berlier recommended a special track gauge of 1,300 mm ( 4 ft 3 + 3 ⁄ 16 in ) (versus
560-612: A branch from Baker Street . It reached Hammersmith in 1864, Richmond in 1877 and completed the Inner Circle in 1884, but the most important route became the line north into the Middlesex countryside, where it stimulated the development of new suburbs. Harrow was reached in 1880, and the line eventually extended as far as Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire , more than 50 miles (80 kilometres) from Baker Street and
672-648: A common designation and brand name for rapid transit systems in France and in many cities elsewhere. The Métro is operated by the Régie autonome des transports parisiens (RATP), a public transport authority that also operates part of the RER network, light rail lines and many bus routes. The name Métro was adopted in many languages, making it the most used word for a (generally underground) urban transit system. "Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain" may have been adapted from
784-473: A compromise with the state. On 20 April 1896, Paris adopted the Fulgence Bienvenüe project, which was to serve only the city proper of Paris. Many Parisians worried that extending lines to industrial suburbs would reduce the safety of the city. Paris forbade lines to the inner suburbs and, as a guarantee, Métro trains were to run on the right, as opposed to existing suburban lines, which ran on
896-690: A fast railway service to central London until the Met was absorbed into the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933. The Metropolitan Railway was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its mainline heading north from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex suburbs. Its first line connected the mainline railway termini at Paddington , Euston and King's Cross to
1008-476: A few minutes journey of it. Over the years during which the guide was published, large numbers of Londoners moved out to the new estates in north-west London. Some of these estates were developed by MRCE, a company that Robert H. Selbie, the Metropolitan Railway's General Manager, set up in 1919. It would eventually build houses along the line, from Neasden reaching far out as Amersham. One of
1120-626: A former theme park in the MetroCentre complex in Gateshead, England Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Metroland . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Metroland&oldid=1123951591 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
1232-541: A hundred Englishmen an appeal which cannot be explained away as some strange instance of mass aberration", he was, in his own words, "scorned by my contemporaries as either an irrelevant eccentricity or a betrayal of the forward looking views of the Modern Movement". John Betjeman admired John Piper 's illustrations for Castles on the Ground , describing the "fake half-timber, the leaded lights and bow windows of
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#17327797189331344-537: A large number of omnibus lines, consolidated by the French government into a regulated system with fixed and unconflicting routes and schedules. The first concrete proposal for an urban rail system in Paris was put forward by civil engineer Florence de Kérizouet. This plan called for a surface cable car system. In 1855, civil engineers Edouard Brame and Eugène Flachat proposed an underground freight urban railroad, due to
1456-405: A massive impact on the Métro. Services were limited and many stations closed. The risk of bombing meant the service between Place d'Italie and Étoile was transferred from Line 5 to Line 6, so that most of the elevated portions of the Métro would be on Line 6. As a result, Lines 2 and 6 now form a circle. Most stations were too shallow to be used as bomb shelters. The French Resistance used
1568-468: A new underground network, whereas the Parisians favoured a new and independent network and feared national takeover of any system it built. The disagreement lasted from 1856 to 1890. Meanwhile, the population became denser and traffic congestion grew massively. The deadlock put pressure on the authorities and gave the city the green light. Prior to 1845, the urban transport network consisted primarily of
1680-562: A premium paid alternative offer proposed for a faster internet connection. As of 2020, the entire RATP network was connected with 4G service, including within tunnels. The automated Line 1 , Line 4 and Line 14 – as well as some congested stations on Line 13 – have platform edge doors ('porte palière') separating the tracks from the platform. The vast majority of Métro stations are not accessible to all. The 20 stations of Line 14 (which first opened in 1998) are fully accessible, and all line extensions since 1992 have included lifts at
1792-569: A serious debate occurred over whether the new system should consist of elevated lines or of mostly underground lines; this debate involved numerous parties in France, including Victor Hugo , Guy de Maupassant , and the Eiffel Society of Gustave Eiffel , and continued until 1892. Eventually the underground option emerged as the preferred solution because of the high cost of buying land for rights-of-way in central Paris required for elevated lines, estimated at 70,000 francs per metre of line for
1904-619: A stockbroker or a lawyer's wife ... you could perhaps afford a new Tudorbethan mansion, with an oak staircase and mullioned windows and half-timbered gables, in Godalming or Esher, or Amersham or Penn". Of the surrounding landscape, Country Life itself has observed that, in its early days, it offered a rose-tinted view of the English countryside ... idyllic villages, vernacular buildings and already dying rural crafts. All were illustrated with hauntingly beautiful photographs. They portrayed
2016-404: A utopian never-never world of peace and plenty in a pre-industrial Britain. By the 1930s the availability of mortgages with an average rate of interest of 4 1 ⁄ 4 per cent meant that private housing was well within the range of most middle class and many working-class pockets. This was a potent factor in the growth of Metro-land: for example, in the first three decades of the 20th century
2128-463: Is a paper ticket aimed at visitors offering unlimited trips for a duration of one, two, three or five days, for zones 1–3 covering the centre of Paris, or zones 1–5 covering the whole of the network including the RER to the airports, Versailles and Disneyland Paris. A single ticket to or from Orly Airport on Métro line 14 costs €10.30. On 26 June 2012, it was announced that the Métro would get Wi-Fi in most stations. Access provided would be free, with
2240-555: Is applied to suburban areas around the route of the Metropolitan Railway, areas which urbanised under the influence of the railway in the 20th century. It applies to land in Middlesex, west Hertfordshire and south Buckinghamshire. The Middlesex area is now administered as the London Boroughs of Brent and Harrow , together with part of the London Borough of Hillingdon . The architect Hugh Casson regarded Harrow as
2352-409: Is available in paper form, or can be loaded onto a Navigo Easy pass. As of 2024, it costs €2.15 per ticket, and is also available as a pack of ten tickets (a carnet ) for €17.35 on Navigo Easy. Daily, weekly, and monthly passes are available for users of a Navigo card , an RFID -based contactless smart card . Daily tickets are also available as paper tickets until the end of 2024. Paris Visite
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#17327797189332464-509: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Metro-land Metro-land (or Metroland – see note on spelling, below) is a name given to the suburban areas that were built to the north-west of London in the counties of Buckinghamshire , Hertfordshire and Middlesex in the early part of the 20th century that were served by the Metropolitan Railway ((also known as
2576-721: Is much like another in an atomised society. Rarely does community flourish", while the American Lewis Mumford , wrote in the New Yorker in 1953 that "monotony and suburbanism" were the result of the "unimaginative" design of Britain's post-war New Towns . When the editor of the Architectural Review , J. M. Richards , wrote in The Castles on the Ground (1946) that "for all the alleged deficiencies of suburban taste ... it holds for ninety out of
2688-500: Is no longer required. The standard ticket for a single trip is the Ticket t+. It is valid for a multi-transfer journey within 90 minutes from the first validation. It can be used on the Métro (excluding Orly Airport), buses and trams, and in zone 1 of the RER. It allows unlimited transfers between the same mode of transport (i.e. Métro to Métro, bus to bus and tram to tram), between bus and tram, and between Métro and RER zone 1. The ticket
2800-476: Is the fifth RER line. It terminates at Haussmann–Saint-Lazare , but a new project, financed by EPAD, the public authority managing the La Défense business district, should extend it west to La Défense–Grande Arche and the suburbs beyond. Between 2007 and November 2011, Line 1 was converted to driverless operation. The line was operated with a combination of driver-operated trains and driverless trains until
2912-558: The Buckinghamshire Railway Centre . Lycett Green noted of the planning of this trip that among the fine details considered were which filling to have in the baguettes on the train through Metro-land and how long it would stop on the track so that the poem "Middlesex" could be read over the tannoy. The event was in the tradition of earlier commemorations of "Metro-land", such as a centenary parade of rolling stock at Neasden in 1963 and celebrations in 2004 to mark
3024-666: The English Electric album. It was released as a single, with the video showing the singer dreamily gazing out from a train at an idealised suburban landscape. In 1903 the Metropolitan developed a housing estate at Cecil Park, Pinner , the first of many such enterprises over the next thirty years. Overseen by the Metropolitan's general manager from 1908 to 1930, Robert H Selbie, the railway formed its own Country Estates Company in 1919. The slogan, "Live in Metro-land",
3136-757: The London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB), and the railway became the Metropolitan line of London Transport. The LPTB was not interested in running goods and freight services and the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) took over all freight traffic. At the same time the LNER became responsible for hauling passenger trains with steam locomotives north of Rickmansworth. The lines north of Aylesbury to Verney Junction and Brill were closed; last train to Brill ran on 30 November 1935 and to Quainton Road and Verney Junction on 2 April 1936. Quainton Road continued to be served by
3248-663: The Met ) ). The railway company was in the privileged position of being allowed to retain surplus land; from 1919 this was developed for housing by the nominally independent Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Limited (MRCE). The term "Metro-land" was coined by the Met's marketing department in 1915 when the Guide to the Extension Line became the Metro-land guide . It promoted a dream of a modern home in beautiful countryside with
3360-829: The Paris metropolitan area in France. A symbol of the city, it is known for its density within the capital's territorial limits, uniform architecture and historical entrances influenced by Art Nouveau . The system is 245.6 kilometres (152.6 mi) long, mostly underground. It has 320 stations of which 61 have transfers between lines. Operated by the Régie autonome des transports parisiens ( RATP ), it has sixteen lines (with an additional four under construction ), numbered 1 to 14, with two lines, Line 3bis and Line 7bis , named because they used to be part of Line 3 and Line 7 , respectively. Three lines ( 1 , 4 and 14 ) are automated . Lines are identified on maps by number and colour, with
3472-616: The Wycombes are not in Metro-land". The usefulness of the term Metro-land , has occasionally led journalists to use the term for the suburban catchment of other underground lines. The Metropolitan's terminus at Baker Street was "the gateway to Metro-land" and Chiltern Court, which opened over the station in 1929 and was headquarters during the Second World War of the Special Operations Executive ,
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3584-515: The standard gauge of 1,435 mm or 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) to protect the system from national takeover, which inflamed the issue substantially. The issue was finally settled when the Minister of Public Works begrudgingly recognized the city's right to build a local system on 22 November 1895, and by the city's secret designing of the trains and tunnels to be too narrow for mainline trains, while adopting standard gauge as
3696-516: The "Rambleland" stations of Surrey and Sussex. The sentimental and somewhat archaic prose of the Metro-land guide ("the Roman road aslant the eastern border ... the innumerable field-paths which mark the labourer's daily route from hamlet to farm") conjured up a rustic Eden – a Middle England , perhaps – similar to that invoked by Stanley Baldwin (Prime Minister three times between 1923 and 1937) who, though of manufacturing stock, famously donned
3808-447: The "balai" (broom) because it sweeps up remaining passengers, arrives at the terminus at 1:15 a.m., except on Fridays (since 7 December 2007), Saturdays and on nights before a holiday, when the service ends at 2:15 a.m. On New Year's Eve , Fête de la Musique , Nuit Blanche and other events, some stations on Lines 1, 4, 6, 9 and 14 remain open all night. Tickets are sold at staffed counters and at automated machines in
3920-569: The "capital city" of Metro-land, while Arthur Mee 's King's England described Wembley as its "epitome". The Metro-land guide insisted that Metro-land was "a country with elastic borders that each visitor can draw for himself". Even so, Metro-land was quite firm that, so far as the Buckinghamshire Chilterns were concerned, its "Grand Duchy" was confined to the hundred of Burnham : "the Chilterns round Marlow and
4032-403: The 105.4 km (41 sq mi) of the City of Paris. Châtelet–Les Halles , with five Métro and three RER commuter rail lines, is one of the world's largest metro stations. The system generally has poor accessibility since most stations were built underground well before ease of access started being taken into consideration. The first line opened without ceremony on 19 July 1900, during
4144-696: The 1920s, the word was so ingrained in the consciousness that, in Evelyn Waugh ’s novel, Decline and Fall (1928), the Hon Margot Beste-Chetwynde took Viscount Metroland as her second husband. Lady Metroland's second appearance in Vile Bodies in 1930 and A Handful of Dust in 1934 further reinforces this. Metro-land further entered the public psyche with the song My Little Metro-land Home (lyrics by Boyle Lawrence and music by Henry Thraile, 1920), while another ditty extolled
4256-413: The 1920s. A short branch opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925. The 4-mile (6.4 km) long Stanmore branch from Wembley Park was completed in 1932. Unlike other railway companies, which were required to dispose of surplus land, the Met was in a privileged position with clauses in its acts allowing it to retain land that it believed was necessary for future railway use. Initially the surplus land
4368-625: The 2.9-metre or 9-foot-6-inch carriages in Lyon) and trains on Lines 1, 4 and 14 have capacities of 600–700 passengers; this is as compared with 2,600 on the Altéo MI 2N trains of RER A. The City of Paris deliberately chose to build narrow Métro tunnels to prevent the running of mainline trains; the city of Paris and the French state had historically poor relations. In contrast to many other historical metro systems (such as New York, Madrid, London, and Boston), all lines have tunnels and operate trains with
4480-840: The Belgian Baron Édouard Empain , won the contract; this company was then immediately reorganized as the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain . Construction began in November 1898. The first line, Porte Maillot – Porte de Vincennes , was inaugurated on 19 July 1900 during the Paris World's Fair . Entrances to stations were designed in Art Nouveau style by Hector Guimard . Eighty-six of his entrances are still in existence. Bienvenüe's project consisted of 10 lines, which correspond to current Lines 1 to 9. Construction
4592-493: The City, and when, on 10 January 1863, this line opened with gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives, it was the world's first underground railway. When, in 1871 plans were presented for an underground railway in Paris, it was called the Métropolitain in imitation of the line in London. The modern word metro is a short form of the French word. The railway was soon extended from both ends and northwards via
Metroland - Misplaced Pages Continue
4704-564: The Englishman's castle" as "the beauty of the despised, patronised suburb". However, as the historian David Kynaston observed sixty years later, "the time was far from ripe for Metroland nostalgia". Valerie Grove , who conceded that Metro-land was "a kinder word than 'suburbia'" and referred to the less spoilt areas beyond Rickmansworth as "Outer Metro-land", maintained that "suburbia had no visible history. Anyone with any spirit ... had to get out of Metro-land to make their mark". Thus,
4816-633: The LNER. For a time, the LPTB used the "Metro-land" tag: "Cheap fares to Metro-land and the sea" were advertised in 1934 but the "Metro-land" brand was rapidly dropped. London Transport introduced new slogans such as "Away by Metropolitan" and "Good spot, the Chilterns". Steam traction continued to be used on the outer sections of what had become the " Metropolitan line " until 1961. From that date Metropolitan trains ran only as far as Amersham , with main line services from Marylebone covering stations between Great Missenden and Aylesbury. The term Metro-land
4928-728: The Ligne de Vincennes (eastbound) with the intention of joining them and to serve multiple districts of central Paris with new underground stations. The new line created by this merger became Line A. The Ligne de Sceaux, which served the southern suburbs and was bought by the CMP in the 1930s, would be extended north to merge with a line of the SNCF and reach the new Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy. This became Line B . These new lines were inaugurated in 1977 and their wild success outperformed all
5040-552: The Met's architect Charles W. Clark, who was also responsible for the design of a number of station reconstructions in outer "Metro-land" at this time. A few large houses had been built on parts of Wembley Park , south-west of the Metropolitan station, as early as the 1890s. In 1906, when Watkin ’s Tower closed, the Tower Company had become the Wembley Park Estate Company (later Wembley Ltd.), with
5152-428: The Metropolitan Railway's publicity department had created the term Metro-land. It was used as the new name for the company's annual guide to the places it served (known as Guide to the Extension Line prior to 1915). The Metro-land guide, although partly written to attract walkers and day trippers, was clearly primarily intended to encourage the building of suburban homes and create middle-class commuters who would use
5264-458: The Metropolitan Railway's trains for all their needs. It was published annually until 1932, but when the Metropolitan became part of London Transport in 1933 the term and guide were abandoned. By then North-West London was well on the road to its reputation for suburbanisation. The 1924 Metro-land guide describes Wembley Park as "rapidly developed of recent years as a residential district", pointing out that there are several golf courses within
5376-643: The Metropolitan for illicit excursions to night clubs in London: "Whenever the police raided the Hypocrites' Club or the Coconut Club, the '43 or the Blue Lantern there would always be Harrovians there". Paris M%C3%A9tro The Paris Métro ( French : Métro de Paris , [metʁo d(ə) paʁi] ), short for Métropolitain ( [metʁɔpɔlitɛ̃] ), is a rapid transit system serving
5488-462: The Metropolitan line to and from London. During a French lesson, Christopher declared, " J’habite Metroland " ["I live in Metroland"], because it "sounds better than Eastwick [the fictional location of his home], stranger than Middlesex". In real life, some schoolboys had made similar journeys for more hedonistic reasons. Betjeman recalled that, between the wars, boys from Harrow School had used
5600-460: The Métro's own rabbit mascot , which advises children on staying away from the closing doors. Métro is the abbreviated name of the company that originally operated most of the network: the Empain group subsidiary Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris S.A. ("Paris Metropolitan Railway Company Ltd."), shortened to "Le Métropolitain". It was quickly abbreviated to Métro , which became
5712-509: The Paris Métro mostly uses two-way tunnels. As in most French métro and tramway systems, trains drive on the right ( SNCF trains run on the left track). The tracks are 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) standard gauge . Electric power is supplied by a third rail which carries 750 volts DC . The width of the carriages, 2.4 metres (7 ft 10 in), is narrower than that of newer French systems (such as
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#17327797189335824-638: The RATP to stop extending lines and concentrate on modernisation. The MP 51 prototype was built, testing both rubber-tyred metro and basic automatic driving on the voie navette . The first replacements of the older Sprague trains began with experimental articulated trains and then with mainstream rubber-tyred Métro MP 55 and MP 59 , some of the latter still in service (Line 11). Thanks to newer trains and better signalling, trains ran more frequently. The population boomed from 1950 to 1980. Car ownership became more common and suburbs grew further from
5936-574: The RER developed by the SNCF would never match the success of the RATP's two RER lines. In 1979, the SNCF developed Line C by joining the suburban lines of the Gare d'Austerlitz and Gare d'Orsay , the latter being converted into a museum dedicated to impressionist paintings. During the 1980s, it developed Line D , which was the second line planned by the initial RER schedule, but serving Châtelet instead of République to reduce costs. A huge Métro-RER hub
6048-478: The World's Fair ( Exposition Universelle ). The system expanded quickly until World War I and the core was complete by the 1920s; extensions into suburbs were built in the 1930s. The network reached saturation after World War II with new trains to allow higher traffic, but further improvements have been limited by the design of the network and, in particular, the short distances between stations. In 1998, Line 14
6160-541: The aim of developing Wembley as a residential suburb. Unlike other railways, from an early date the Metropolitan Railway had bought land alongside its line and then developed housing on it. In the 1880s and 1890s it had done so with the Willesden Park Estate near Willesden Green station, and in the early 1900s it developed on land in Pinner, as well as planning the expansion of Wembley Park . In 1915 by
6272-463: The area when houses had been built to accommodate them. Between 1921 and 1928 season ticket sales at Wembley Park and neighbouring Metropolitan stations rose by over 700%. Like the rest of West London, most of Wembley Park and its environs was fully developed, largely with relatively low-density suburban housing, by 1939. On 1 July 1933 the Metropolitan Railway amalgamated with other Underground railways, tramway companies and bus operators to form
6384-743: The centenary of the Uxbridge branch. Metro-land (notably west Hertfordshire) formed the backdrop for the 1960s ABC TV series The Avengers , whose popular imagery was deployed with a twist of fantasy. The archetypal Metro-land subjects (such as the railway station and the quiet suburb) became the settings for fiendish plots and treachery in this series and others, such as The Saint , The Baron and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) , all of which made regular use of locations within easy reach of film studios at Borehamwood and Pinewood . Some abhorred Metro-land for its predictability and sameness. A. N. Wilson observed that, although semi-detached dwellings of
6496-406: The central character of Metroland (1980), a novel by Julian Barnes (born 1946) that was filmed in 1997 , ended up in Paris during the disturbances of May 1968 – though, by the late 1970s, having thrown off the yearnings of his youth, he was back in Metro-land. Metroland recounted the essence of suburbia in the early 1960s and the features of daily travel by a schoolboy, Christopher Lloyd, on
6608-646: The centre of London. From the end of the 19th century, the railway shared tracks with the Great Central Railway route out of Marylebone . Electric traction was introduced in 1905 with electric multiple units operating services between Uxbridge, Harrow-on-the-Hill and Baker Street. To remove steam and smoke from the tunnels in central London, the Metropolitan Railway purchased electric locomotives , and these were exchanged for steam locomotives on trains at Harrow from 1908. To improve services, more powerful electric and steam locomotives were purchased in
6720-693: The centre of Paris. The main railway stations, termini of the suburban rail lines, were overcrowded during rush hour. The short distance between Métro stations slowed the network and made it unprofitable to build extensions. The solution in the 1960s was to revive a project abandoned at the end of the 19th century : joining suburban lines to new underground portions in the city centre as the Réseau Express Régional (regional express network; RER). The RER plan initially included one east–west line and two north–south lines. RATP bought two unprofitable SNCF lines—the Ligne de Saint-Germain (westbound) and
6832-405: The cities in the world best served by public transportation. Despite the network's uniform architecture, several of its stations stand out at the hand of their unique design. The Métro itself has become an icon in popular culture, being frequently featured in cinema and mentioned in music. In 2021, the RATP started offering an umbrella lending service at several Métro and RER stations, highlighting
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#17327797189336944-539: The delivery of the last of its driverless MP 05 trains in February 2013. The same conversion for Line 4 was completed on 13 January 2022, with the last non-automatic train removed from that line on 17 December 2023, and RATP would now like to automate Line 13. Line 14 was automated from Day 1, as will the lines 15 to 18 which are being built as part of the Grand Paris Express . Several extensions to
7056-399: The difficult and heterogeneous soils and rocks. Line 1 and Line 4 were conceived as central east–west and north–south lines. Two lines, ligne 2 Nord (Line 2 North) and ligne 2 Sud (Line 2 South), were also planned but Line 2 South was merged with Line 5 in 1906. Line 3 was an additional east–west line to the north of line 1 and line 5 an additional north to south line to
7168-512: The direction of travel indicated by the terminus. It is the second-busiest metro system in Europe , after the Moscow Metro , as well as the tenth-busiest in the world. It carried 1.498 billion passengers in 2019, roughly 4.1 million passengers a day, which makes it the most used public transport system in Paris. It is one of the densest metro systems in the world, with 244 stations within
7280-409: The earliest of these MRCE developments was a 123-acre one at Chalkhill, within the bounds of what was Repton ’s Wembley Park . MRCE acquired the land shortly after it was created and began selling plots in 1921. The railway even put in a siding to bring building materials to the estate. The term ‘Metroland’ (often seen now without the hyphen - see Note on spelling , below) has become shorthand for
7392-543: The early 20th century that had been brought within easy reach of London by the railways, "merely ended up creating an endless ribbon ... not perhaps either town or country". In the process, despite Metro-land' s promotion of rusticity, a number of outlying towns and villages were "swallowed up and lost their identity". Wilson noted that the magazine Country Life , which had been founded by Edward Hudson as Country Life Illustrated in 1897, had influenced this pattern with its advertisements for country houses: "If you were
7504-560: The east of Line 4. Line 6 would run from Nation to Place d'Italie . Lines 7 , 8 and 9 would connect commercial and office districts around the Opéra to residential areas in the north-east and the south-west. Bienvenüe also planned a circular line, the ligne circulaire intérieure , to connect the six mainline stations. A section opened in 1923 between Invalides and the Boulevard Saint-Germain before
7616-450: The greater Paris area. The Métro is mostly underground (225.2 km or 139.9 mi of 245.6 km or 152.6 mi). Above-ground sections consist of elevated railway viaducts within Paris (on Lines 1, 2, 5 and 6) and the at-level suburban ends of Lines 1, 5, 8, and 13. The tunnels are relatively close to the surface due to the variable nature of the terrain, which complicates deep digging; exceptions include parts of Line 12 under
7728-598: The high rate of accidents on surface rail lines. On 19 November 1871 the General Council of the Seine commissioned a team of 40 engineers to plan an urban rail network. This team proposed a network with a pattern of routes "resembling a cross enclosed in a circle" with axial routes following large boulevards. On 11 May 1872 the Council endorsed the plan, but the French government turned down the plan. After this point,
7840-448: The high-quality decoration of its stations, the trains' extreme comfort and pretty lighting. Nord-Sud did not become profitable and bankruptcy became unavoidable. By the end of 1930, the CMP bought Nord-Sud. Line A became Line 12 and Line B Line 13 . Line C was built and renamed Line 14 ; that line was reorganised in 1937 with Lines 8 and 10. This partial line is now the south part of Line 13. The last Nord-Sud train set
7952-403: The hill of Montmartre and line 2 under Ménilmontant . The tunnels mostly follow the twists and turns of the streets above. During construction in 1900, a minimum radius of curvature of just 75 metres (246 ft) was imposed, but even this low standard was not adhered to at Bastille and Notre-Dame-de-Lorette . Like the New York City Subway , and in contrast with the London Underground ,
8064-461: The inner suburbs of Boulogne . The line C planned by Nord-Sud between Montparnasse station and Porte de Vanves was built as Line 14 (different from present Line 14 ). It extended north in encompassing the already-built portion between Invalides and Duroc, initially planned as part of the inner circular. The over-busy Belleville funicular tramway would be replaced by a new line, Line 11 , extended to Châtelet . Lines 10, 11 and 14 were thus
8176-418: The kind built in the inner Metro-land suburbs in the 1930s "aped larger houses, the stockbroker Tudorbethan of Edwardian Surrey and Middlesex", they were in fact "pokey". He reflected that as [the husband] went off to the nearest station every morning ... the wife, half liberated and half slave, stayed behind wondering how many of the newly invented domestic appliances they could afford to purchase, and how long
8288-527: The left. Unlike many other subway systems (such as that of London), this system was designed from the outset as a system of (initially) nine lines. Such a large project required a private-public arrangement right from the outset – the city would build most of the permanent way, while a private concessionaire company would supply the trains and power stations, and lease the system (each line separately, for initially 39-year leases). In July 1897, six bidders competed, and The Compagnie Generale de Traction, owned by
8400-519: The local garage proprietor by slapping him on the back and offering him a pint of 'four 'alf'". With similar ambiguity, Metro-land combined idyllic photographs of rural tranquillity with advertising spreads for new, though leafy, housing developments. Herein lay the contradictions well captured by Leslie Thomas in his novel, The Tropic of Ruislip (1974): "in the country but not of it. The fields seemed touchable and yet remote". Writer and historian A. N. Wilson reflected how suburban developments of
8512-605: The man would hold on to his job in the Slump . No wonder, when war came, that so many of these suburban prisoners felt a sense of release. By the end of the Second World War architects in general were turning their backs on suburbia; the very word tended to be used pejoratively, even contemptuously. In 1951 Michael Young , one of the architects of the Labour Party's electoral victory in 1945, observed that "one suburb
8624-483: The mantle of countryman ("the tinkle of the hammer on the anvil in the country smithy, the sound of the scythe against the whetstone"). As one historian of the London Underground put it wryly, "the world of Metroland is not cluttered with people: its suburban streets are empty ... There are, it seems, more farm animals than people." A more cynical view, that sought to contrast illusion with changing times,
8736-471: The most optimistic forecasts to the extent that line A is the most used urban rail line in Europe with nearly 300 million journeys a year. Because of the enormous cost of these two lines, the third planned line was abandoned and the authorities decided that later developments of the RER network would be more cheaply developed by the SNCF, alongside its continued management of other suburban lines. However,
8848-406: The name of London's pioneering underground railway company, the Metropolitan Railway , which had been in business for almost 40 years prior to the inauguration of Paris's first line. By 1845, Paris and the railway companies were already thinking about an urban railway system to link inner districts of the city. The railway companies and the French government wanted to extend mainline railways into
8960-426: The new stations. By 2025, 23 stations on the Métro will be accessible, following extensions to existing lines. The four new lines of the Grand Paris Express will also be fully accessible from day 1. The Law on Equal Rights and Opportunities, Participation and Citizenship of Persons with Disabilities of 2005 [ fr ] does not require the Métro to be made accessible. RATP estimates that retrofitting
9072-464: The only two on the network to be split in branches. The RATP would like to get rid of those saturated branches in order to improve the network's efficiency. A project existed to attribute to line 14 one branch of each line, and to extend them further into the suburbs. This project was abandoned. In 1999, the RER Line E was inaugurated. Known during its conception as Eole (Est-Ouest Liaison Express), it
9184-567: The panache and vision of Charles Holden 's striking, modern designs for the Underground group in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Nearly 70 years later the Chilterns Conservation Board was advertising "Chilterns Country – countryside walks from rail stations" (2004). Drawing no doubt on "Metro-land, a guide for ramblers", published by British Railways Southern Region shortly after the Second World War, it referred to
9296-650: The plan was abandoned. On 31 January 1904, a second concession was granted to the Société du chemin de fer électrique souterrain Nord-Sud de Paris (Paris North-South underground electrical railway company), abbreviated to the Nord-Sud (North-South) company. It was responsible for building three proposed lines: Line A was inaugurated on 4 November 1910, after being postponed because of floods in January that year. Line B
9408-615: The population of Harrow Weald rose from 1,500 to 11,000 and that of Pinner from 3,000 to 23,000. In 1932 Northwick Park was said to have grown over the previous five years at the rate of 1,000 houses annually and Rayners Lane to "repay a visit at short intervals to see it grow". In the mid-20th century the spirit of Metro-land was evoked in three "late chrysanthemums" by Sir John Betjeman (1906–1984), Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death: "Harrow-on-the-Hill" ("When melancholy autumn comes to Wembley / And electric trains are lighted after tea"), "Middlesex" ("Gaily into Ruislip Gardens / Runs
9520-488: The red electric train") and "The Metropolitan Railway" ("Early Electric! With what radiant hope / Men formed this many-branched electrolier"). In his autobiographical Summoned by Bells (1960) Betjeman recalled that "Metroland / Beckoned us out to lanes in beechy Bucks". Described much later by The Times as the "hymnologist of Metroland", Betjeman reached a wider audience with his celebrated documentary for BBC Television, Metro-land , directed by Edward Mirzoeff , which
9632-481: The same dimensions. Five Paris Métro Lines (1, 4, 6, 11 and 14) run on a rubber tire system developed by the RATP in the 1950s, exported to the Montreal , Santiago , Mexico City and Lausanne metro. The number of cars in each train varies line by line. The shortest are lines 3bis and 7bis with three-car trains. Line 11 ran with four until the summer 2023 when four-car MP 59 trains, the oldest type in service at
9744-405: The station foyer. Entrance to platforms is by automated gate, opened by smart cards and paper tickets. Gates return tickets for passengers to retain for the duration of the journey. There is normally no system to collect or check tickets at the end of the journey, and tickets can be inspected at any point. The exit from all stations is clearly marked as to the point beyond which possession of a ticket
9856-525: The stations are very close: 548 metres (1,798 ft) apart on average, from 424 metres (1,391 ft) on Line 4 to 1,158 metres (3,799 ft) on the newer line 14, meaning Paris is densely networked with stations. The surrounding suburbs are served by later line extensions, thus traffic from one suburb to another must pass through the city (the circular line 15 , now under construction, will enable some journeys that do not need to pass through Paris). The slow average speed effectively prohibits service to
9968-479: The suburban areas that were built in north-west London and in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex following the Metropolitan branches. It had become immortalised well before the guide stopped being published. A song called "My Little Metro-land Home" had been published in 1920, and Evelyn Waugh ’s novel Decline and Fall (1928) has a character marrying a Viscount Metroland. She reappears, with
10080-470: The suburbs opened in the last years. Line 8 was extended to Pointe du Lac in 2011, line 12 was extended to Aubervilliers in 2012, line 4 was extended to Mairie de Montrouge in 2013, Line 14 was extended by 5.8 km (3.6 mi) to Mairie de Saint-Ouen in December 2020, and Line 4 was extended to Bagneux in January 2022. Since the Métro was built to comprehensively serve the city inside its walls,
10192-424: The suburbs. The new Line 13 was inaugurated on 9 November 1976. In October 1998, Line 14 was inaugurated. It was the first fully new Métro line in 63 years. Known during its conception as Météor (Métro Est-Ouest Rapide), it was the first of the now three fully automatic lines within the network, along with Line 1 and Line 4. It was the first with platform screen doors to prevent suicides and accidents. It
10304-639: The three new lines envisaged under this plan. Most lines would be extended to the inner suburbs. The first to leave the city proper was Line 9, extended in 1934 to Boulogne-Billancourt ; more followed in the 1930s. World War II forced authorities to abandon projects such as the extension of Line 4 and Line 12 to the northern suburbs. By 1949, eight lines had been extended: Line 1 to Neuilly-sur-Seine and Vincennes , Line 3 to Levallois-Perret , Line 5 to Pantin , Line 7 to Ivry-sur-Seine , Line 8 to Charenton , Line 9 to Boulogne-Billancourt, Line 11 to Les Lilas and Line 12 to Issy-les-Moulineaux . World War II had
10416-616: The time, were gradually replaced by new five-car MP 14 trains (at a pace of 3 to 5 new MP 14 every Monday). Lines 1 and 4 run six-car trains. Line 14 currently runs a mix of six and 8-car trains; in the future it will only run 8 cars. All other lines run with five. Two lines, 7 and 13, have branches at the end, and Line 10 has a one-way loop. Trains serve every station on each line except when they are closed for renovations. [REDACTED] The first train leaves each terminus at 5:30 a.m. On some lines additional trains start from an intermediate station. The last train, often called
10528-400: The title Lady Metroland, in two more of Waugh's novels; Vile Bodies (1930) and A Handful of Dust (1934). The British Empire Exhibition further encouraged the new phenomenon of suburban development. Wembley's sewerage was improved, many roads in the area were straightened and widened and new bus services began operating. Visitors were steadily introduced to Wembley and some later moved to
10640-531: The tunnels to conduct swift assaults throughout Paris. It took a long time to recover after liberation in 1944. Many stations had not reopened by the 1960s and some closed for good. On 23 March 1948, the CMP (the underground) and the STCRP (bus and tramways) merged to form the RATP , which still operates the Métro. The network grew saturated during the 1950s. Outdated technology limited the number of trains, which led
10752-667: The virtues of the Poplars estate at Ruislip with the assertion that "It's a very short distance by rail on the Met/And at the gate you'll find waiting, sweet Violet". Queensbury and its local surroundings and characters were cited in the song "Queensbury Station" by the Berlin-based punk-jazz band The Magoo Brothers on their album "Beyond Believable", released on the Bouncing Corporation label in 1988. The song
10864-576: Was " at the gateway to Metro-land". In similar vein, Chorleywood and Chenies , later described by John Betjeman as "the essential Metro-land", were "at the gateway" of the Chiltern Hills (of which Wendover was the "pearl"). Before the end of the First World War George R. Sims had incorporated the term in verse: "I know a land where the wild flowers grow/Near, near at hand if by train you go,/Metroland, Metroland". By
10976-695: Was coined by the Met's marketing department in 1915 when the Guide to the Extension Line became the Metro-land guide, priced at 1 d . This promoted the land served by the Met for the walker, the visitor and later the house-hunter. Published annually until 1932, the last full year of independence for the Met, the guide extolled the benefits of "The good air of the Chilterns," using language such as "Each lover of Metroland may well have his own favourite wood beech and coppice – all tremulous green loveliness in Spring and russet and gold in October." The dream promoted
11088-442: Was conceived with extensions to the suburbs in mind, similar to the extensions of the line 13 built during the 1970s. As a result, most of the stations are at least a kilometre apart. Like the RER lines designed by the RATP, nearly all stations offer connections with multiple Métro lines. The line initially ran between Saint-Lazare and Olympiades and was subsequently extended north to Mairie de St.Ouen in 2020. Lines 13 and 7 are
11200-418: Was created at Châtelet–Les Halles , becoming one of the world's largest underground stations. The same project of the 1960s also decided to merge Line 13 and Line 14 to create a quick connection between Saint-Lazare and Montparnasse as a new north–south line. Distances between stations on the lengthened line 13 differ from that on other lines in order to make it more "express" and hence to extend it farther in
11312-425: Was decommissioned on 15 May 1972. Bienvenüe's project was nearly completed during the 1920s. Paris planned three new lines and extensions of most lines to the inner suburbs, despite the reluctance of Parisians. Bienvenüe's inner circular line having been abandoned, the already-built portion between Duroc and Odéon for the creation of a new east–west line that became Line 10 , extended west to Porte de Saint-Cloud and
11424-473: Was even etched on the door handles of Metropolitan carriages. Some stations, such as Hillingdon (1923), were built specifically to serve the company's suburban developments. A number, including Wembley Park, Croxley Green (1925) and Stanmore (1932), were designed by Charles W. Clark (who was responsible also for Chiltern Court) in an Arts and crafts "villa" style. These were intended to blend with their surroundings, though, in retrospect, they arguably lacked
11536-469: Was first broadcast on 26 February 1973 and was released as a DVD 33 years later. The critic Clive James , who judged the programme "an instant classic", observed that "it saw how the district had been destroyed by its own success". To mark the centenary of Betjeman's birth his daughter Candida Lycett Green (born 1942) spearheaded a series of celebratory railway events, including an excursion on 2 September 2006 from Marylebone to Quainton Road, now home of
11648-404: Was inaugurated on 26 February 1911. Because of the high construction costs, the construction of line C was postponed. Nord-Sud and CMP used compatible trains that could be used on both networks, but CMP trains used 600 volts third rail, and NS −600 volts overhead wire and +600 volts third rail. This was necessary because of steep gradients on NS lines. NS distinguished itself from its competitor with
11760-564: Was managed by the Land Committee, made up of Met directors. In the 1880s, at the same time as the railway was extending beyond Swiss Cottage and building the workers' estate at Neasden, roads and sewers were built at Willesden Park Estate, and the land was sold to builders. Similar developments followed at Cecil Park, near Pinner and, after the failure of the tower at Wembley, plots were sold at Wembley Park. Robert Selbie, then General Manager, thought in 1912 that some professionalism
11872-526: Was needed and suggested a company be formed to take over from the Surplus Lands Committee to develop estates near the railway. The First World War delayed these plans however, and it was 1919, with the expectation of a housing boom, before the MRCE was formed. Concerned that Parliament might reconsider the unique position the Met held, the railway company sought legal advice. The legal opinion
11984-454: Was of a modern home in beautiful countryside with a fast railway service to central London. From about 1914 the company had promoted itself as The Met, but after 1920 the commercial manager, John Wardle, ensured that timetables and other publicity material used the term Metro instead. Land development also occurred in central London when in 1929 a large, luxurious block of apartments called Chiltern Court opened at Baker Street, designed by
12096-478: Was offered in 1934 by the composer and conductor Constant Lambert who "conjure[d] up the hideous faux bonhomie of the hiker , noisily wading his way through the petrol pumps of Metroland, singing obsolete sea chanties [sic] with the aid of the Week-End Book, imbibing chemically flavoured synthetic beer under the impression that he is tossing off a tankard of 'jolly good ale and old' ... and astonishing
12208-412: Was put into service to relieve RER A . Line 11 reaching Rosny–Bois-Perrier in 2024 is the network's most recent extension. A large expansion programme known as the Grand Paris Express (GPE) is currently under construction with four new orbital Métro lines ( 15 , 16 , 17 and 18 ) around the Île-de-France region, outside the Paris city limits. Further plans exist for Line 1 , Line 7 , Line 10 ,
12320-422: Was so intense that by 1920, despite a few changes from schedule, most lines had been completed. The shield method of construction was rejected in favor of the cut-and-cover method in order to speed up work. Bienvenüe, a highly regarded engineer, designed a special procedure of building the tunnels to allow the swift repaving of roads, and is credited with a largely swift and relatively uneventful construction through
12432-520: Was that although the Met had authority to hold land, it had none to develop it, so an independent company was created, although all but one of its directors were also directors of the railway company. The MRCE went on to develop estates at Kingsbury Garden Village near Neasden , Wembley Park , Cecil Park and Grange Estate at Pinner and the Cedars Estate at Rickmansworth and create places such as Harrow Garden Village . The term Metro-land
12544-413: Was written by Paul Bonin and Melanie Hickford, who both grew up and lived in the area. In 1997, Metroland was the title and setting for a movie starring Christian Bale about the development of the relationship between a husband and wife living in the area. The movie was based on the novel of the same name written by Julian Barnes. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark recorded a song Metroland on
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