The Grand Paris Red Line

THE CHALLENGE

The Grand Paris project will help to considerably reduce traffic and ease passenger flows in the suburbs, which currently rely on the car or use of the main lines, saturating the key public transport corridors.

Journey times for Grand Paris Express lines will be very attractive: estimated commercial speed of 60 km/h and maximum speeds of over 100 km/h with 90-second intervals between stations.

As far as technical features are concerned, this metro will use automatic train operations and network features include:

• tunnels excavated using boring machines: two-track tunnels or a single track mono tube tunnel
• two types of track, for cars with metal or rubber tyres
• trains of a similar size to the Paris metro or the larger RER trains
• DC traction power supplied through a third rail or overhead contact system.

The “Southern Red Line” route will be the first to be commissioned. This 33 km underground section between Pont de Sèvres and Noisy-Champs will comprise 16 stations, linking 22 communes, each with a population of over a million. Southern Red Line ridership is estimated at 300,000 journeys a day from the outset with trains running at 2-minute intervals at rush hour.

SYSTRA’S ROLE

SYSTRA is using its expertise and experience in high capacity automated metro to provide Technical Assistance for Systems, from preliminary design to acceptance and operations, for the entire Red Line route. SYSTRA will advise Société du Grand Paris (SGP) on all Red Line systems and is responsible for systems integration, performance and coherence. This includes supervising project management of the rolling stock and automatic train operations.

SYSTRA is developing a Rolling Stock and Automated Systems object library to be used by the Civil Works Designer in their construction design in order to secure the future integration of the Systems. We are also designing all the Stations, Structures & MEP systems under the BIM guidance of Société du Grand Paris. We act as BIM expert to ensure that the BIM models produced by the supply chain can be integrated into the federated reference model at each stage of design and construction. We have drafted a project specific BIM data Exchange Agreement to ensure the project is progressed as a ‘digital twin’ of the built environment utilising such technology as immersive rooms, 3D prints and ‘touch tables’ for interactive design assurance reviews.