Extension of key Paris metro line opens in time for 2024 Olympics

With just on a month to go until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated the extension of metro 14 – a key line that connects the athletes' village in the north of Paris to Orly airport in the south.

The €3.5 billion extension of metro line 14 opened on Monday after some eight years of work - just in time for the Paris Olympic Games (26 July - 11 August) and Paralympics (28 August - 8 September).

The 28 kilometre-long extension, with eight new stations, will serve the athletes' village, the Stade de France and the aquatic centre to the north.

It is expected to ease the pressure on the Paris region transport system by linking the southern Orly airport to the city centre in just 25 minutes.

Until then, Orly was only served by a single dedicated bus line, a tramway and an automatic metro line that did not pass through Paris, forcing the vast majority of travellers and employees to take the car.

President Macron made the inaugural trip between two stations in the northern suburbs of Paris on Monday but didn't make an official speech.

But he had previously referred to the extension as a project that would "succeed in changing lives in a very concrete way" and hailed it as an example of successful team work.

'Supermetro'

The Line 14 extension is the only transport infrastructure delivered on time compared to what was promised in the Paris 2024 bid.

(with AFP)


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