Paris Metro

Like NY’s subway, the Metro in Paris is a mish-mash of different lines built at different times to different specifications. So like NY, the Paris Metro runs different styles of trains. Despite the differences between the lines there are some trends, and they alluminating. Paris’s roomy, vaulted stations - fully tiled with white beveled ceramics – shrug off the dungeon feeling and stay cleaner than the NYC stations. These must be significantly more expensive to build and probably to maintain too, representing an investment in mass transit that we have yet to make. (The stations weave around underground a lot like the streets do above ground).

Photo credit: http://www.track0.com/japh/archive/2004_11.html

Photo credit: http://www.panochrome.fr

The trains are generally smaller than NY trains. Even when they are not particularly crowded, you'll sometimes find yourself closer to you neighbor than you would in NY. On trains with bench-seats at right angles to the car-length, the seating in amazingly close. Plopping down in a seat directly across from another passenger, either you will both have to position your legs off-center or one of sits with knees akimbo while the other’s are in between. It’s um…intimate.



The lines that I rode required that a rider push a button to open the door. Only activated doors open up, saving on heating/cooling. And this is probably really weird, but one of my favorites things about all of Paris is that Metro doors can be opened just before the train has come to a full stop. Practically, it has the advantage of preventing passengers from getting on while others have yet to get off. Aesthetically, it makes each stop a bit of ballet. People hop off the moving trains as they must have from trolley cars in the days of yore. I could have happily watched that dance all day long. I seemed indicative of a place that has faith in its public. In NYC, trains come to a complete stop, wait the few seconds required to fend off litigation and then open. The NYC system protects us from ourselves. The Paris Metro says, "Go ahead, leap!" The emergency electric shutoff - accessible to anyone - likewise showcases Parisians' trust in themselves.



For all of the criticism of bloated French bureaucracies, lovely bits of laissez-faire are everywhere.