Transit & mobility projects in Europe
Europe
Joined September 2023
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Kim Kardashian bought a Malibu villa for $70M—the same price as the entire Marseille (France) Metro PSD installation plan, including locally made platform doors, platform reinforcement, and installation at every single station.
The Glasgow Subway, the 3rd-oldest subway in the world (1896), is currently being retrofitted for driverless operation and platform screen doors, overcoming challenges such as narrow platforms and tunnels.
Meanwhile, in North America, lots of talk, but not a single door in sight
Glasgow is far from being an isolated case.
European cities are aggressively modernizing their (often legacy) systems with things like driverless operation and PSDs: Paris, Madrid, Marseille, Vienna, Barcelona, Lyon to name just a few of them
Euro transit & urbanism retweeted
Toronto would build this for over 1.7 billion dollars per kilometer and somehow gaslight themselves into thinking that cost is reasonable because Canada is constrained by land rights, labour unions, safety standards, maternity leave and universal healthcare unlike... France. – at Wan Chai District, Hong Kong
Euro transit & urbanism retweeted
France pushing the bounds of light metro technology by beginning upgrades to increase frequencies on Rennes Metro Line A, already the world's most frequent metro line. By 2028, trains will be arriving every 60 sec during peak periods instead of the world record of every 80 secs.
Euro transit & urbanism retweeted
When people talk about Europe they often act like the continent isn't good at anything modern or future looking. But Europe absolutely kicks North America's ass on infrastructure - at least in it's implementation.
Euro transit & urbanism retweeted
Actually, NYC's Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 is expected to cost not 4× but 12× more per kilometer than Paris's Line 14 latest extension (the one that opened ahead of schedule for the Olympics) with much grander stations:
Euro transit & urbanism retweeted
Paris’s Metro 14 line is sick, blows my LA mind:
-Fully automated (and opened 1990s)
-1min 30 sec peak headways
-Insane acceleration + little dwell time
-Platform screen doors
-Fare gates + security at them
-Sick views as you watch from front
On which platform would you rather wait for your train?
1. Metro Line B in Rennes, France (pop. 381k): opened in 2023, cost €97M/km with no cost overrun, driverless trains every 90 seconds, and platform screen doors for safety.
2. Toronto: INT$450M/km tram, none of the above.
🚊🇫🇷 Montpellier, France (pop. 480k), just opened its 5th elemental tram line!
➡️ 16 km of track
➡️ 27 stations
💰 €440M
Like all other Montpellier tram lines, Line 5 has its own element 🌬️🪨🌊🔥 — nature & life 🌿 — serving all the city’s parks!
Montpellier now has 81.6 km of modern tram lines — about 1 km per ~5,900 residents — and over 100 million passengers per year.
"How can a tram not have priority over cars?"
French people share their surprise at the lack of transit signal priority on Toronto’s Finch West LRT.
In France, all trams (even legacy 19th-century ones) have full TSP—it's literally part of the definition of a “tram” over there!
🇫🇷🚡 Paris just opened its first urban gondola line (C1)!
➡️ 5 stations, connected to the metro and BRT
➡️ 4.5 km (the longest in Europe)
➡️ 18-minute ride from end to end
💰€138M
As usual for Paris, super sleek design—stations, towers, and cabins—perfect urban integration.
