Under the €35 billion ($58 billion)Grand Paris Express project,the city is rapidly increasing its rail network.
Unlike existing lines,the five new ones are configured in rings that avoid passing through the middle of the city. The north-south extension of Line 14,which opened in June,is the first part of the expansion project,which will comprise 200 kilometres of extra track and 68 new stations.
Montreal
The Canadian city’s four metro lines extend for 69 kilometres and sport 68 stations.
Montreal’s metro trains run on rubber tyres rather than steel wheels. They operate daily from 5.30am to 1am (1.30am on Saturdays). The railway was built entirely underground,partly due to Montreal’s cold winters.
A 5.8-kilometre extension of Montreal Metro’s blue line is due to open in 2030,a year later than planned,at a cost of $C6.4 billion ($7 billion).
A new automated metro line consisting of five stations between the CBD and suburbs south of the St Lawrence River opened in July last year. Extensions of the driverless train line to Montreal’s international airport and the city’s western suburbs are also under way.
New York
New York’s subway,with a mammoth 472 stations (or 423,depending on how you count them),is the largest in the world. It is also among the oldest and it operates virtually 24 hours a day.
However,the subway’s size,age and funding problems have made it a challenging system to improve. Parts fell into near-disrepair around the time of the 2007-08 global financial crisis.
After introducing the MetroCard in 1993,the Metro Transit Authority established contactless fare system OMNY in 2017,where commuters pay for the first 12 trips taken in a week.
The most recent line,Second Avenue Subway,opened in 2017 after a decade of drilling. The second phase of that line into Harlem is being developed at an expected cost of $US5.23 billion ($7.8 billion). It is due for completion by about 2032.
Barcelona
Barcelona’s privatised metro network is made up of 183 stations that stretch across the city and its suburbs,mostly underground.
Uniquely,the network is made up of three different track gauges. Some of the 12 lines contain only driverless trains. Barcelona’s Lines 9 and 10 routes are being constructed using one giant boring machine,which will create tunnels containing two rail tracks. Many other metros around the world including Sydney’s have twin tunnels for trains in either direction.
Once completed,the lines in Barcelona will be nearly 48 kilometres long,the longest driverless metro line on the continent.
Hong Kong
It’s the envy of the world:a 218-kilometre rail line with a 99.9 per cent punctuality rate and an average of more than 5.5 million daily riders.
Opened in 1979 with just 15.9 kilometres of track,Hong Kong’s rail network quickly expanded to 11 lines stretching across most of the city,including the airport.
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The group running the project,the Mass Transit Railway Corporation,was initially wholly owned by the government,but in 2000,it was partially privatised and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Uniquely,the metro system records profits – huge ones:in the 2022-23 financial year,it reported a profit of almost $1.5 billion. But it also has among the cheapest fares in the world. The shortest trip costs just 91 cents.
That’s because the major driver of the corporation’s huge revenue is its property development arm. MTR holds a portfolio of about 50 properties,which were provided to the company by the government for free for the development of new train stations. Above the stations sit some of the city’s largest skyscrapers,owned by the company.
MTR is the company leading the private consortium that runs Sydney’s M1 metro line from Tallawong to Sydenham,and eventually onto Bankstown.