21st Century Tranist
I write to help me learn and grow as a professional, demonstrate my knowledge, flesh out and organize my ideas, and enjoy a flexible and creative outlet.
All articles are posted here on this website. Some articles I keep more private and are exclusively posted here, some are also posted on my Substack publication account.
Europe Work Study Journal: Paris (and Strasbourg)
I cannot overstate how impressed I am with France.
Hello, it’s been a while. The last few months have been crazy for me, as I’ve been busy with the hiring process for a new job! (I can’t say where because it’s not officially official yet, but hopefully it is soon!)
I also recently returned from a work study in France and Spain through San José State University. Led by renowned transportation and urban planner Eric Eidlin and with a group of other professionals and students, we studied transit and urban planning concepts in Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon, Barcelona, Zaragoza, and Madrid over two weeks.
Most of my writings in the coming months will be about the highlights of what I learned on this trip and how it could possibly be applied here in America. I’m going to start with a four-part series of articles, just briefly going over the highlights and biggest takeaways from each leg of the trip. After that, I plan to write more articles focusing on more specific topics.
I’ll kick things off by talking about the first leg of our trip in Paris (with a day trip to Strasbourg).
Tour of Gares & Connexions
(English: Stations & Connections)
(Left) Image 1: Logo sign in SNCF Gares & Connexions Lab in Gare du Nord. (Right) Image 2: Description of Gares & Connexions Lab inside the showroom. (Source Transit Visions)
The highlight of our first day in Paris was our presentation from Fabrice Morenon, managing director of SNCF’s Gares & Connexions.
Gares & Connexions is one of the five subsidiaries that make up SNCF, France’s national railway company, and oversees the planning and management of the nation’s 3,000+ railway stations. It is the dedicated body for all of the country’s stations.
We learned about the key structure and functions of Gares & Connexions; its financing, authority, and responsibility. While the company does work with local and regional governments on large projects for financing and regulations, it is in charge of planning and delivering large renovation and development projects. It also oversees the day-to-day management and retail operations of all stations.
One thing that stood out to me is how SNCF is structured to spread revenue to support all stations nationwide. While only 38 are profitable, our host explained that in a journey between a profitable and non-profitable station, the passenger still uses both. I liked that sentiment a lot. SNCF sees the bigger picture and understands that all stations are deserving of investment to deliver a quality end-to-end travel experience.
Image 3: Presentation slide giving an overview of the SNCF Gares & Connexions. (Source: Transit Visions)
Stations are an important aspect of every railway journey. SNCF’s dedicated subsidiary allows it to deliver a comprehensive vision for planning and management for a consistent, high-quality passenger experience across the country. This is just one case of France’s strong, centralized transit governance proving itself to be effective, and a model the U.S. can learn from.
Day trip to Strasbourg
(Left) Image 4: Sign on platform at Gare de Strasbourg-Ville. (Right) Image 5: Front facade of Strasbourg Cathedral. (Source: Transit Visions)
We started the day with a quick tour of Gare de l’Est, a station that sees 145,000 daily passengers. We learned that the expansion and continued success of the overall TGV network is leading to conventional intercity (IC) train services to be phased out, showing an overall evolution of travel across the country. As high-speed services continue to expand, it is becoming a more standard type of service and going beyond special city pairs.
After our tour, we got to experience this type of travel for ourselves on one of the fastest segments of the TGV network. Reaching top speeds of 200 miles per hour, the journey between Paris and Strasbourg was about an hour and 45 minutes each way.
While I’ve written about day trips by high-speed rail before, this was my first time truly experiencing it, and it was unlike anything I’ve done before. What we were able to pack into a single day, being able to travel between two cities that are 300 miles apart in less than two hours, was unbelievable. Our entire day was not taken up by travel, nor did we wake up and get to the station super early, or get back late at night:
We arrived at the station at 8:30 a.m. (for our tour). We could’ve arrived there at 10–10:15 and still easily made our train.
We departed Paris at 10:30 a.m. and arrived in Strasbourg shortly after noon.
We had about 6.5 hours to explore Strasbourg before we had to get back to the station for our train at 7 p.m.
We got back to Paris at about 8:45, the night was still young! This allowed some of us in the group to go out to dinner and have a fun night in Paris.
I can’t help but dream about what is possible with this type of travel between comparable city pairs here in the U.S., such as between Boston to Philadelphia or Chicago to St. Louis.
Paris Gare de l’Est to Gare de Strasbourg-Ville
Distance: 306 miles
French TGV (High-Speed Rail): 1:45 hours
Drive time: 5–5:30 hours
Image 6: Paris to Strasbourg route. (Source: Poudou99, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
Boston South Station to Philadelphia 30th Street Station
Distance: 308 miles
Amtrak Acela: 5 hours
Drive time: 5–5:30 hours
Image 7: Boston to Philadelphia route. (Source: amtrakvacations.com)
Chicago Union Station to St. Louis Gateway Station
Distance: 297 miles
Amtrak Lincoln Service: 4:45–5 hours
Driving: 5–5:30 hours
Image 8: Chicago to St. Louis route. (Source wanderu.com)
Grand Paris Express construction site tour
Image 9: Site of Grand Paris Express Line 15 going through Parc Henri Barbusse through Paris’s outer Issy-les-Moulineaux neighborhood.
During our last full day in Paris, we got an up-close look at the construction of the Grand Paris Express, a massive expansion of the Paris Metro mostly in the outer communities and suburbs of the region.
Here is a quick overview of the project by the numbers:
200 km (120 miles) of new metro lines
4 new lines: Line 15, 16, 17, & 18
2 line extensions: Line 11 & 14
68 stations
Speeds of 55–65 km/hr (34–40 mph)
100% automatic.
90% underground.
3 million passengers per day
2-minute frequencies during rush hour
2030 scheduled completion
Image 10: Grand Paris Express full project map. (Source: Reddit)
The main goal of this project is to improve travel between outer suburbs without having to go through the city center. One of the construction site displays we walked past on our tour explained this really well by using specific examples of travel scenarios between two outer suburbs (see Image 11).
Image 11: Construction site billboard explaining the benefit of inter-suburb travel with new periphery lines as opposed to the current radial network. (Source Transit Visions)
Chelles to Stade de France: 41 min -> 27 min
From Chelles, an eastern suburb of Paris, to the Stade de France, the national stadium of France, located in a northern suburb, is currently about a 40-minute journey.
With the new lines 15 and 16 (see Image 13), not only will the trip be cut down to less than half an hour, but one can travel directly to the location around the outside of the city center. No more traveling into the heart of Paris to change from one service to another (see Image 12).
Image 12: Screenshot of Google Maps directions between Chelles and Stade de France. (Source: Google Maps)
Image 13: Grand Paris Express map between Chelles and Stade de France. (Source Hektor, accessed via Wikipedia; edited by Transit Visions)
Montfermeil to Villejuif: 1h 24 min -> 32 min
Travel between Montfermeil, a northeastern suburb, to Villejuif, a southern suburb, currently takes an hour and a half to two hours.
When Metro lines 15 and 16 (see Image 15) open, the journey will be chopped down to closer to half an hour.
Image 14: Screenshot of Google Maps directions between Montfermeil and Villejuif. (Source Google Maps)
Image 15: Grand Paris Express map between Montfermeil and Villejuif. (Source: Hektor, accessed via Wikipedia; edited by Transit Visions)
This project is bigger than transit
A transit expansion project of this magnitude is very impressive. When completed, 98% of the Paris metro region’s population will be within 2 kilometers (~1.2 miles) of a metro station. However, going beyond just building new metro lines, the Société des Grands Projets—the company delivering the Grand Paris Express for the regional government—is working with local communities to carry this expansion out as a full-scale urban renewal project.
Our host showed us a couple of the more than 100 new real estate developments in Grand Paris Express station areas that the Société des Grands Projets aims to initiate by 2030. The organization has also acquired more than one million square meters (roughly 10.7 million square feet) for this development to take place across the region.
Images 16 & 17: Pictures of new buildings under construction around the future Grand Paris Express station area in the Issy-les-Moulineaux neighborhood. (Source: Transit Visions)
Stay tuned for more!
The Paris (and Strasbourg) leg of our trip gave a great look into a variety of transit projects and experiences.
Our next stop in Lyon was solely focused on the major improvement project of Gare de Lyon-Part-Dieu, which is another really impressive project. I’m very excited to write about it and share with you in the coming days!