RER D

RER D
Overview
Stations	59
Ridership	145,000,000 journeys per year
Operation
Opened	1987 (last extension in 1996)
Rolling stock	Z 5300, Z 5600 Z 20500
Technical
Line length	190 km (120 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in)
Route map Geographically accurate path of the RER D

RER D
Legend
D3  Creil Chantilly-Gouvieux  D1  Orry-la-Ville-Coye La Borne Blanche Survilliers-Fosses Louvres Les Noues  D7  Goussainville  D5  Villiers-le-Bel – Gonesse – Arnouville Garges – Sarcelles Pierrefitte – Stains Saint-Denis Stade de France – Saint-Denis Gare du Nord  D8  Châtelet-Les Halles Gare de Lyon Marne Maisons-Alfort – Alfortville Le Vert de Maisons Villeneuve – Prairie Villeneuve – Triage Villeneuve-Saint-Georges Vigneux-sur-Seine Montgeron – Crosne Seine Yerres Juvisy Brunoy Viry-Châtillon Boussy-Saint-Antoine Combs-la-Ville – Quincy Grigny – Centre Lieusaint – Moissy Ris-Orangis Savigny-le-Temple – Nandy Orangis – Bois de l'Épine Cesson Grand Bourg Le Mée-sur-Seine Évry – Courcouronnes Centre Seine Évry-Val-de-Seine Melun Le Bras-de-Fer  D2  Corbeil-Essonnes Vosves  D6  Boissise le-Roi Ponthierry Pringy Essonnes – Robinson Saint Fargeu Moulin-Galant Le Coudray Montceaux Villabé Le Plessis – Chenet Mennecy Ballancourt La Ferté-Alais Boutigny Maisse Buno-Gironville Boigneville Malesherbes  D4

The RER D is one of the five lines in the RER rapid transit system serving Paris, France.

The line officially runs from the northern terminus Orry-la-Ville – Coye (D1) to the southern terminuses Melun (D2) and Malesherbes (D4). In reality, some trains continue north to Creil except during rush hours, and the link between Juvisy-sur-Orge and Melun via Corbeil-Essonnes is operated by RER D.

Due to its high rate of incidents and social disturbances, RER D line is colloquially known as "RER poubelle" (Trash).^[1]

• First inauguration : 27 September 1987
• Length : 190 km (120 mi)
• Number of stops : 59 (including Corbeil-Essonnes Melun branch, Chantilly and Creil)

Line D links the Gare du Nord with the Gare de Lyon via Châtelet – Les-Halles. The section north of the Gare du Nord opened in the late 1980s; a dedicated tunnel opened in 1995 to connect it to the SNCF network south of the Gare de Lyon, part of which was transferred to the RER.

Chronology

• 27 September 1987: Inauguration of Line D. Operated Villiers-le-Bel – Gare du Nord – Châtelet-Les Halles, 19 km, using the Line B Tunnel to Châtelet – Les Halles
• 1988: Extension north towards Goussainville.
• September 1990: Extension north towards Orry-la-Ville.
• September 1995: Inauguration of "Interconnexion Sud-Est". The line is extended from Châtelet to Melun and La Ferté-Alais then Malesherbes (the following year, 1996) in the south of Paris.
• 25 January 1998: New station, Stade de France – Saint-Denis, opened. Located between Gare du Nord and St-Denis.
• 29 January 2007: First renovated Z 20500 stock in service.
• 19 March 2008: Start of the "D Maintenant" programme by Guillaume Pepy, the president of SNCF.
• 14 December 2008: Reduced "Interconnexion Nord-Sud" service, with 8 interconnected trains per hour.
• Late 2009: End of the "D Maintenant" programme.
• 7 December 2011: Start of studies for the doubling of the Châtelet-Gare du Nord tunnel.
• 15 December 2013: New station, Créteil-Pompadour, opened.

History

Conception

Initially, the "métro régional", the ancestor to the RER, was conceived of three lines, one going from east to west (the future RER A), a new line built from existing lines (the future RER C), the extension of the Ligne de Sceaux and with its interconnection with an SNCF line, along with a supplementary interconnected north-south (the future RER D). The operation of renovating "les Halles" gave the occasion to build Châtelet-Les Halles with a cut-and-cover method, in order to reduce costs.^[2]

Gare de Lyon underground station on June 2008.

Initially, the new RER D was meant to share with the RER A between Paris-Gare de Lyon and Châtelet-Les Halles. But, RATP, the company who runs the RER A, objected to such an operation as the number of passengers using the RER A was growing and required running extra trains on the RER A. It was decided that instead, each lines must have its own platforms, in which the RER A at the Gare de Lyon has its tracks at lower level of the underground station, with the future RER D on the upper level. The RER D tracks at Paris-Gare de Lyon have four tracks and being above the RER A tracks, allowed "platform to platform" transfers vertically, a Japanese invention.^[2]

Inauguration

On 27 September 1987, the RER D was officially created, by extending existing suburban trains from Villiers-le-Bel to Gare du Nord, towards Châtelet-Les Halles. Initially 19 km (12 mi) long, it was equipped with bi-current Z 8800 stock trains, while newer Z 20500 stock trains were still being built. At Châtelet-Les Halles station, the RER D terminated on the three central tracks, already built from the conception of Châtelet-Les Halles station.^[3]

In 1988, existing suburban trains terminating at Goussainville now integrate with the RER D.^[4] On the same year, the first bi-mode Z 20500 trains are in service. They were initially composed of 4 cars until the north-south interconnection was inaugurated in 1995, when they became 5-car trains (where they're coupled to make 10-car trains).

In September 1990, the RER D again extended north to Orry-la-Ville. At the same time, one-man operation started on the RER D.^[5]

An interconnected line

Finally, on 11 September 1995, the north-south interconnection of the RER D was put into service by building a dedicated 2.5 km (1.6 mi) long tunnel between Châtelet-Les Halles and Paris-Gare de Lyon.^[6]

In 1996, the RER D was extended south from La Ferté-Alais to Malesherbes.^[3] On 15 January 1998 for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, St-Denis – Stade de France station opened, in order to serve the Stade de France.

A high number of incidents, from a social and service point of view, have brought the term "RER poubelle" ("RER trash" in French), often used by its users, and even its staff.^[7] Assaults are frequent^[8] and unpunctuality is the highest in the Transilien network, with the number of late trains going from 9.9% to 14.1% between 1994 and 1995.^[9]

Villeneuve - Triage station, on June 2007. On the left, track 2M towards Paris, on the right track 1B towards Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, and next to it, track 2B towards Paris.

A near miss

On 20 September 2003, an unusual incident occurred near Villeneuve-Triage station. A southbound train stopped at 18:50 on the central track near the station due to an incident. Passengers aboard were invited to step off the train by the left, as track 2M has been neutralised by the regulators. However, due to a misuse of the alarm signal by nervous passengers, some doors opened on the right. Ignoring the driver's orders, numerous passengers stepped off on the right, and were confronted with a northbound train, travelling at around 110 km/h (70 mph).

The driver of the train had the time to activate his emergency brakes and slowed the train to around 70 km/h (45 mph), which permitted to passengers to brace against the stopped train or jump into the ditch. Thankfully, no one was injured.^[10] This near miss, filmed by a passenger with a mobile phone, was broadcast the night of the incident, and created a large controversy.^[11][12]

The "RER D" affair

On 9 July 2004, a presumed anti-semitic assault provoked a large stir in France, as well as a political and media frenzy with immediate declarations from the Ministry of the Interior Dominique de Villepin and the President of France Jacques Chirac.^[13] However, the allegations were proven false after the investigation, as the person behind the presumed assault suffered from pathological lying. The affair then provoked a controversy on the treatment of information by the media.^[14][15]

A Z 20500 train at Corbeil-Essonnes station, in April 2007.

A master plan set in motion

On 22 November 2006, the STIF has approved a master plan for the RER D, in order to establish short, mid and long term goals for the reliability of the RER D.^[16]

On 29 January 2007, the first renovated Z 20500 train was presented, the first out of 137 trains. Renovated trains feature a new blue livery, uniform 2+3 seats, new lighting and new floor covering. The renovation programme costs over €100,000,000.^[17]

Delays

Protesters at Yerres on October 17th, 2009

The RER D is often seen in Paris as the most unpunctual railway line in the RER network.^[18] This unpunctuality is partially due to the tunnel the RER B and RER D lines share between Châtelet - Les Halles station and Gare du Nord station, where even a small delay of a few seconds on either lines can cause catastrophic delays and trains to be cancelled. The effects of this mean regular commuters of the RER D are used to trains being cancelled or late daily.

See also

• List of stations of the Paris Métro
• List of stations of the Paris RER

References

1. From French version: "Des incident fréquents: un RER 'poubelle'?" ("Frequent incidents: 'RER Trash'?").
2. Jean Robert, Notre métro, p. 386
3. http://cheminet.free.fr/idf_rer_d_e.php
4. Bernard Collardey, Les Trains de banlieue, tome II, p. 227
5. Les Trains de Banlieue. Tome II. De 1938 à 1999, op. cit., p. 227.
6. INA - Report on the new RER D
7. Le Journal du Dimanche - Comment améliorer le « RER poubelle », article d'Antoine Debièvre du 12.02.2006
8. Observatoire national de la délinquance - Phénomènes de délinquance dans les transports en commun ferrés d’Île-de-France
9. STIF - La régularité des modes ferrés
10. Conseil général des Ponts et Chaussées - Enquête sur les circonstances de l'incident survenu le 20 septembre 2003 sur la ligne D du RER en gare de Villeneuve-Triage, novembre 2003
11. "On l'a échappé belle, pour parler clair". metro-pole.net, via web.archive.org. article du 23 septembre 2003. Archived from the original on 10 January 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2015. Check date values in: |date= (help).
12. "Villeneuve-Triage, rapport d'enquête définitif". metro-pole.net, via web.archive.org. article du 5 novembre 2003. Archived from the original on 19 July 2013. Retrieved 12 May 2015. Check date values in: |date= (help).
13. Le Monde, Stupeur après l'agression antisémite d'une femme dans le RER, article du 13.07.2004
14. RFI - La France sous le choc
15. RFI - Antisémitisme : le doute
16. "Conseil du STIF du 22 novembre 2006" (PDF). Retrieved 20 June 2015.
17. {STIF - « Dès aujourd’hui, des trains rénovés : le STIF et Transilien SNCF s’engagent pour l’amélioration du RER D »
18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j_NlbfMOn8 | French TV report on the unreliability of the RER D

External links

English

• RATP's English-language website
• RATP's interactive map of the RER
• RATP's interactive map of the Paris métro

French

• RATP official website
• Mobidf website, dedicated to the RER (unofficial)
• Metro-Pole website, dedicated to Paris public transports (unofficial)