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Paris Métro Line 13 (opened asLine B;French:Ligne 13 du métro de Paris) is one of the sixteen lines of theParis Métro that are currently open. Built by theNord-Sud Company as a shuttle servicing both Porte de Clichy and Saint-Ouen from Saint Lazare train station, Line B eventually became Line 13 in 1930, when the Nord-Sud was bought by rivalCompagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris (CMP), while sister lines A became12, and C theoriginal line 14. Line 13 was extended in 1976 to reach the northern end ofLine 14, which it then absorbed. Line number 14, now vacated, was eventually reused forMeteor in 1998.
Line 13 was once planned to be taken over by a north–southRER line connecting the rail yards of Saint Lazare and Montparnasse train stations, but this was cancelled after the reorganisation of theÎle-de-Franceregion in 1965. Today, Line 13 connects the western part of Paris to the suburbs ofAsnières-sur-Seine,Gennevilliers,Clichy,Saint-Denis andSaint-Ouen-sur-Seine in the north and toMalakoff,Vanves,Châtillon andMontrouge in the south. Serving 32 stations, it is the network's fifth busiest line, with 131.4 million passengers in 2017.
Line 13 will be automated during the 2030s, becoming the third Paris Metro line to be converted from manual to driverless operation, after lines1 and4. Lines 14 to18 all operate driverless from day one.
At 24.3 km (15.1 mi) in length, counting both of its northern branches, it is, as of 2025, the second longest line of the Métro, only being surpassed by line 14. This is due to change when Line 15 will be open in its full scale. In 2004, Line 13 carried over 114 million riders, about 540,000 per weekday.[1] Annual traffic grew by about ten million passengers after the opening of two new stations on the Asnières branch on 14 June 2008, for a total of 610,050 riders a day in December 2009.[2]
Line 13's use of two northern branches serving each highly populated areas, its lengthy extension into the suburbs, as well as the rapid development of the areas it serves, all resulted in the line's overloading, further highlighted by associations representing passengers. It is the most crowded line in the system, especially in its original section.
On 28 December 1901, theSociété du chemin de fer éléctrique souterrain Nord-Sud de Paris, orNord-Sud Company, obtained a concession from the City of Paris to build a rapid transit network of two lines concurrent with the more prominentCMP, which had already opened the first Metro lines of Fulgence Bienvenüe's project.[3]
ConnectingPorte de Saint-Ouen (Paris Métro) andSaint-Lazare (Paris Métro), the construction of Line B began on 19 June 1905 with 2.8 km (1.7 mi) of track. Four years later, building commenced on the branch to Porte de Clichy. The line ran under Rue d'Amsterdam until its split atLa Fourche, with each branch following either the Avenue de Clichy or the Avenue de Saint-Ouen. No connection was provided to the CMP network.
On 26 February 1911, Line B opened between Saint-Lazare and Porte de Saint-Ouen, with the northwestern branch to Porte de Clichy opening a year later. Due to the narrow width of Rue d'Amsterdam, Berlin (renamed to Liège) station was built unusually with non-aligned platforms. The Nord-Sud Company operated Line B with 368 trains per day, a minimum of 2.5-minute headways.
On 1 January 1930, the CMP absorbed the Nord-Sud Company and renamed Line B to Line 13 in accordance with its numerical naming policy. The electrical supply also needed to be changed, since the Nord-Sud Company used overhead power cables, while the CMP relied on third rail technology. In order to allow interoperability, Line 13 was switched to third rail power.
Line 13 is perhaps the least-appreciated line of the Métro by its riders and is the object of a number of criticisms due to its constant overcrowding, especially from Saint-Lazare north where the line splits in two, leading to reduced frequencies. NicknamedLa Bétaillère (the livestock [train]) by locals, it is not rare for passengers to wait for several trains before being able to board due to the sheer volume of users. Within trains, there may be up to 4.5 people per square metre, while the cars on Line 13 can only hold four people per square metre, a percentage of use of 116%.
In December 2003, Line 14's extension to Saint-Lazare increased the number of passengers on Line 13 by over 50% : within a year, the number of people using Saint-Lazare rose from 40.8 million to 64.1 million. This only worsened Line 13's congestion, which by 2005 had become chronic, and unsolvable without infrastructure change.
Important economic development at the Plaine Saint-Denis around a vast urban project since the construction of theStade de France has also worsened conditions on the line since a number of companies have moved there, forcing more employees to use the line for their commutes.[4] Between 1999 and 2008, the population living in the cities serviced by line 13 rose by 11%, so an approx. 39 000 people augmentation. This was years before the arrival of Line 12 in the area.
In 2007, the delay of the automatic control system named Ouragan led the RATP to propose to STIF the employment of "pushers" (pousseurs, control assistants), responsible for smoother boarding and detraining at the busiest stations on Line 13, namely Saint-Lazare and Place de Clichy.
In 2018, this again worsened as two new development projects put another strain on Line 13 : The newParis' Tribunal at Porte de Clichy, and theSeat of the Ile de France headquarters at Saint-Ouen. On the other hand, Line 14 was already on the road to alleviate Line 13 by offering a direct service between both.
Since December 2006, more than eighty additional trains have been added to provide supplemental service, a nearly 10% increase including additional Asnières branch service. Two years later, an automatic reversal at Châtillon-Montrouge was introduced, which sent the trains back from a specific parking spot straight into the platform back to Paris without any driver input. This reduces the turn-back time by ten seconds so as to circulate trains every 95 seconds, allowing more departures each day.
This has in turn required the installation ofplatform screen doors at the southern terminus to prevent passengers from falling onto the tracks when no train operator is on deck.
On 17 December 2006, Line 13 has had its own command post and centralised control (poste de commande et de contrôle centralisé, PCC) managed from Malakoff. It involves the coordination of a number of officials to reduce the number of delays and incidents on the line. Since 29 July 2008, the PCC integrates the maneuver and start functions that were previously operated at each terminal.
At the end of 2010, it was revealed that ten stations would receive platform screen door installation in an attempt to increase the average speed of trains and reduce track-related incidents. After a test a few years earlier, the RATP decided that such doors must be built as crowding increases so that passengers cannot fall off the platform; to do this, the agency recruited theKaba Group to perform automation and installation on Lines 1 and 13. The company uses the ClearSy security system to control door opening and closing. However, the new platform screen doors are not the same as the prototypes installed atInvalides.
On 29 December 2009, the RATP announced thatMiromesnil would be the first of twelve stations to be equipped with these doors and that work would begin in June 2010, finishing three months later. After that, Saint-Lazare, Champs-Élysées – Clemenceau, Basilique de Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis – Porte de Paris, Varenne, Saint-François-Xavier, Duroc, Liège, Montparnasse-Bienvenüe, and Place de Clichy, would receive these platform doors, while Invalides would see the prototype ones replaced as well.
Since October 2017, the Saint-Denis branch can be cut at Porte de Saint-Ouen with line 13 working in both directions, in order to mitigate a problem north or south.
Three large scale solutions were investigated to reduce the congestion on line 13:[5]
The sheer cost of the first two solutions, combined with the difference in quality for the second one (comfort, accessibility, visual aspect between the line 13 and 14 stations) led the STIF to adopt the last solution in 24 October 2007, with said extension opened in December 2020.[6] According to Île-de-France Mobilités, this extension has removed 19 to 27% of peak hour traffic from line 13.[7] Oddly enough, the idea of extending Line 4 north from Porte de Clignancourt to Mairie de Saint-Ouen, was present on the 2007 studies, although no extension works were taken on ever since.
In December 2022,Île-de-France Mobilités and RATP announced that the line would be fully automated by 2035, becoming the 3rd metro line in Paris to be converted tounattended train operation afterLine 1 andLine 4.[8] The line will be modernised in two phases - the introduction of the new trains (MF 19) from 2027, followed by the automation of the line in the early 2030s.[9] The automation of the line itself is estimated to cost around €837m.[8]
After the northwestern branch was extended by 1.88 km (1.17 mi) with two more stations,Les Agnettes and Les Courtilles, a further push with a third station (Port de Gennevilliers) is on the drawing board, yet no further steps were taken ahead.
Line 13 passes near several places of interest:
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