• On May 24, after 10 years of work, the Aimé-Césaire and Mairie d'Aubervilliers line 12 metro stations will open to the public.

  • "Aubervilliers was one of the largest towns in the inner suburbs which was still not served by the metro", notes Emilie Le Gall, in charge of project management.

  • The inhabitants of the city will now be able to reach Saint-Lazare in about twenty minutes.

Within two weeks, the inhabitants of Aubervilliers will be able to reach Saint-Lazare in twenty minutes!

The opening of the two new Aimé-Césaire and Mairie d'Aubervilliers stations, as an extension of line 12, is scheduled for May 24.

After ten years of construction.

The commune of Seine-Saint-Denis “was one of the largest cities in the inner suburbs which was still not served by the metro, underlines Emilie Le Gall, in charge of the project management.

This is going to be a big change for its inhabitants.

The RATP expects up to 40,000 daily passengers on this new section of track, 15,000 at Aimé-Césaire and 25,000 at Mairie d'Aubervilliers.

These stations will open more than four years late.

“This follows technical challenges, linked to the nearby groundwater table, the presence of network operators in the ground, and the stoppage of work during the health crisis”, explains Tony Mailly.

If the management refuses to indicate the final cost of the project, the project manager recognizes that these pitfalls are felt on the final cost.

In 2006, the State voted an initial budget of 175 million euros.

​The equivalent of a building 7 stories below the surface

The metro platform is located 22 meters deep.

White wall, black floor, "we leaned towards sobriety", explains Emilie Le Gall.

"There is a construction of a size equivalent to that of a 7-storey building below the surface", adds Tony Mailly.

In the large distribution room, luminous rings, which constitute the "trademark" of the last RATP stations, are used to let in as much natural light as possible.

“And then, in transparency, we will see a fresco in homage to Aimé-Césaire”, indicates Emilie Le Gall.

Concrete and corrugated sheets are used for the layout of the station.

Perforated sheets, used for better acoustics, also cover the ceiling.

The station is modern.

It is fully equipped to allow the automation of the line even if this operation, which requires heavy work, is not envisaged for the moment.

Connecting old ways and new

A backhoe drives along the rails, in the tunnel between the Front Populaire and Aimé-Césaire stations.

She transports stones, then deposits them in a work train.

In the distance, workers remove the old rails.

In the rear of the Front Populaire station, the terminus, sidings already exist.

“We are going to transform them into common tracks, on which the metros can run up to 70 km/h”, announces Tony Mailly.

One of them, out of the four that exist, is kept to allow trains to turn around in the event of incidents on the line.

Between April 23 and 27, regulars on the line noticed a break in operations, from Jules-Joffrin.

For five days, about sixty men worked to connect the old ways with the new ones.

Since the end of this connection, the metro has been running at full speed to test the operation of the trains.

It serves the Aimé-Césaire station, without passengers.

Beware of the temptation not to get off at the terminus, safety tests are still in progress.

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  • Paris

  • Aubervilliers

  • RATP

  • Metro

  • Ile-de-France

  • Public transport