The Noisy-le-Grand Metro is a now-abandoned

people mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...

line in

Noisy-le-Grand Noisy-le-Grand () is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. The commune of Noisy-le-Grand is part of the sector of Porte de Paris, one of the four sectors of the "new town" of Marne-la-Vallée. ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It was built and inaugurated, but never opened to the public. It was equipped with an advanced version of the SK system.

History

Origins of the Project

The first project was announced in 1988 as part of promoter Christian Pellerin's "Maille Horizon Complex". The line was a double-track system, entirely underground, measuring 518 meters long and had two stations. The purpose of the people mover system was to allow easy access to the vast real estate project by ensuring a rapid and continuous link between the centre of the complex and the

Noisy-le-Grand – Mont d'Est station Noisy-le-Grand–Mont d'Est station is a train station in Noisy-le-Grand, Seine-Saint-Denis, under Les Arcades department store. Description The station is in the Mont d'Est district of Noisy-le-Grand, under Les Arcades department store. One c ...

on A Line of the Île-de-France RER. On July 4, 1991, the ''Syndicat des transports parisiens'' (STP), predecessor of the ''Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France'' (STIF, now

Île-de-France Mobilités Île-de-France Mobilités (ÎDF Mobilités), formerly ''STIF'', is the brand name of the ''Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France'', the organisation authority that controls and coordinates the different transport companies operating in the ...

), authorized construction of the system. On July 30, 1991, the construction project was awarded to the Ligne Horizon company. In October 1991, was chosen to install, operate and maintain (for the lifetime of the project) the Noisy-le-Grand SK system. This was the first installation of an SK system in an urban environment. Construction work on the project was finished on February 22, 1993. Due to the bankruptcy of Christian Pellerin's project, the line was mothballed in November 1994. Regular maintenance was still performed and the system was run empty on a monthly basis, with an estimated annual cost of one million francs (150,000 euros). On October 7, 1999, the STP’s Board of Directors authorized the termination of the operating concession and closed the system.

Abandonment of the Project

This equipment belongs to the ''Public Development Establishments of Marne-la-Vallée (Épamarne)'', under the French Government, which remains responsible for its possible demolition. The SK system was bought by the RATP in 1996; the RATP is responsible for maintenance. There are no plans to open the system, nor would it be feasible after having been shuttered for so long. According to local sources, the system and equipment were in relatively good condition until 2006. Since 2007, the station, the equipment and the electrical installations are regularly looted. In 2010, according to mayor Michel Pajon, the technology is obsolete, spare parts unavailable, the technical skills required to operate the system no longer exist and the transport cabins have not been maintained for five years. Also, the RATP refuses to provide details on maintenance costs for the system. The abandoned site is popular with

urban explorers Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof and tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical inter ...

Future of the Site

A study was undertaken in 2017 to determine the amount of

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

used in the project's infrastructure, and the possible purchase of the remains by the city, for the symbolic cost of one euro. In July 2018, demolition started on the Mailles Horizon terminal station, in order to allow construction of housing on the land. However, the tunnel and the Mont d'Est station will not be removed. In August 2020, the municipality of Noisy-le-Grand announced the conversion of the Mont d'Est site by 2023 into a "chic underground hybrid space" at ground level and two levels underground, including a garden, a brasserie, a wine bar, a grocery store, a concert hall, a coworking space, a playground and a pop-up store. First planned for 2023, tenders for projects on the site were announced in April 2022, with a possible opening date in 2025.

Cost of the Project

Seventy million

French francs The franc (, ; sign: F or Fr), also commonly distinguished as the (FF), was a currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money. It w ...

(13.7 million euros) were invested in this project, including 15 million francs at the expense of the municipality. This project has been the subject of observations by the Regional Chamber of Accounts of Île-de-France due to the important sums spent on the project, taken as a complete financial loss.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noisylegrand Porte de Paris Buildings and structures in Seine-Saint-Denis