PalenQ

Though most Paris metro lines are underground there are some key ones that are built on pillars above the street.

On my first trip to Paris i found riding these raised metros fascinating - especially at night when the lights of the city and streets and neighborhoods seemed so enthralling - much better than a dark tunnel though underground stations do seem more interesting.

So if seeking out a different metro experience and see and not pass under where you're going search out the elevated metro lines. Metro maps at one time indicated raised lines but no more.

Plans to cover these noisy lines i think have been dropped. Can't recite what lines are over the ground but remember line 2 from Eiffel Tower area to Nation, going thru Pigalle may be largely and ligne 10 emerges from the ground to cross the Seine and remains above ground for a while.

rkkwan

And those lines use rubber tires. I've only see them in Paris and Montreal. Anywhere else with rubber tires on subway trains?

gertie3751

Mexico city. Built by the French I believe.

PalenQ

Paris ones yes i think were made with rubber not only to reduce noise but to gain sales for Michelin and to export the technology

i'm intrigued by rubber-tired metro question and will research it.

PalenQ

Ah the Google research is so easy:

Wikipedia
Rubber-tyred metro is a form of rail transport, but using some road technology: the vehicles have wheels with rubber tyres (tires), but using a set of two ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-tyred_metro

Montreal Metro's 759-car fleet runs entirely underground and uses exclusively rubber tires instead of steel wheels. As noted in the STM official ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Metr

Marc Dufour : Rail : Metro : The principle behind the rubber-tired ...The principle behind the rubber-tired metro History At left : The first ever rubber-tired parisian Métro at the Porte-des-Lilas station. ...
emdx.org/rail/metro/principeE.html -

Central Station >> Italian tramway and metro systems today
Two systems are in building: the first Torino automatic metro line with rubber-tired trains and the light metro line in Napoli. ...
digilander.libero.it/CentralStation/italy_tram_metro.htm

Paris MetroParis is the first city to introduce rubber tired metros on Line 11. Later lines 1,4 and 6 were converted to rubber tires. With the rubber tires, ...
ktransit.com/transit/France/Paris/paris_hr.htm

[PDF] Alstom_KTX.QXD/5File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
rubber-tired metro for Lausanne. Transport. Project Story ... A world-leading supplier of metro solutions, including rubber-tired rolling stock ...
http://www.transport.alstom.com/_eLi...load_34736.pdf

lamgray

Chicago El trains? I ride them to work everyday, but not sure what the wheels are made of.

http://marcel-marchon.com/img--11794...station--m.jpg

Waldo

The absolute best view of the Eiffel Tower is the one from the metro, as soon as it goes from beneath the ground, to being elevated. Just before it arrives at the Bir Hakim station, and crosses the Seine, the train is in such a posture that the view from it is really magnificent. Every time I see that view, I want to stop the train and just stare.

BettyBoop

A benefit of my forgetting to get off at Bastille to transfer, then finding myself heading out of the city (those tunnels can be hypnotic), I got off and reversed my trip.

I don't recall the line I transferred to, to get back on course, but I was treated to an elevated section. It was a different perspective of the city which I enjoyed.

hanl

Sections of metro lines 2, 5 and 6 are elevated.

I think line 6 has the longest stretch of elevated track.

PalenQ

As for tired metro trains

In the 30s i believe Michelin folks tried to make inroads into the intercity train market by putting tired buses on rails

these trains came to be called Michelines and though they didn't prove feasible in the long run the term taking a Micheline is still used by older French folk at times to indicate an omnibus local train

I have a picture of a rubber tired Micheline at home and c'est droll!

kerouac

If you count the suburban extensions, several other metro lines have elevated or surface level sections -- even line 1 when it goes to La Défense.

fnarf999

Seattle's ridiculous mile-long Monorail uses rubber tires, set sideways, to propel itself along the concrete beam.

Michael

PalenQ,

So that's where the term Micheline comes from. I once took one from Lyon to Périgueux, which is one long ride.

PalenQ

YouTube - MICHELINE TRAIN...
One of the oldest train in france... running in... One of the ...
Watch video - 44 sec -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wol1fJwBfMU


Michelines were a series of rubber-tyred trains developed in France in the 1930s by various rail companies and rubber-tyre manufacturer Michelin. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micheline

Chemin de Fer de l'État - In 1931, an agreement is reached between Michelin and the Etat, authorising trials of the Micheline train. By 1933, the trains were used for expresses ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemin_de_Fer_de_l'État

kerouac

When I was a little boy, I sometimes took the micheline from Batilly to Metz. The train line is now exclusively for freight (thanks to a giant Renault factory in Batilly, village of which my grandfather was the mayor for almost 30 years), so now you have to take the SNCF bus.

PalenQ

Jack and others

i said i thought the term Micheline may be only used by older folks because it seems my older in-laws use it mainly

but it is still in vernacular as your and others uses here would imply

would a young folk know what Micheline meant?

thanks

kerouac

I think that young people know that 'micheline' means 'the dinky little local train' -- but only in the outer regions, not in the big cities. In the Paris suburbs, I doubt that many of the users of the RER or other means of transportation would know what 'micheline' means, unless they have a French literary or movie culture, where the term is still evoked regularly.

PalenQ

my older inlaws even remember third class!

any idea how long ago that went out?

kerouac

A quick Google search tells me that 3rd class was eliminated by the SNCF in 1956.

PalenQ

As for rubber tired mass transit - some of France's new tramways, like in Caen and Nancy, have trams on their own rights of ways for the most part but with rubber tires - like a trolley bus though there is a guideway in the roadbed to guide it - and i believe in Caen at least the tram can continue on regular roads with an alternative power source.

Rail enthusiasts such as the British rail mag i read label these trams SHAM TRAMS and disdain them - to me, though i love railed things as well, seem very practical, especially in smaller towns without the huge volume of passengers that is better to move with all rail trains.