Paris to Get New Metro... on the River

The river has inspired poets and writers of every generation.

But the Seine may soon perform a more prosaic, if no less important, function for the people of Paris and the millions of tourists who visit the city every year.

The city is pressing ahead with ambitious plans for a new metro line - but the service's 35 stations will be jetties and its trains advanced, 200-seat ferries.

City and suburban authorities have approved plans for a "metro fluvial" running along a 15-mile stretch of the river Seine, from Vitry in the east through the picturesque heart of the capital and out to Suresnes in the west.

"If all the various administrative procedures don't take too long and the financing is forthcoming, this could be up and running within three years," said Denis Baupin, a Green party city councillor and the deputy mayor responsible for transport policy.

The project, part of a wide-ranging plan to expand the role of the Seine in the life of the capital, has the backing of 90% of the city's inhabitants, according to a recent poll.

Some 20% of those surveyed said they could envisage using the service routinely to travel to and from work, while 67% said they were likely to choose it often for shopping, or for going out in the evening or at weekends.

"There's a certain romantic appeal about taking a waterbus, but there are solid practical arguments too," said Nicholas Roy, in charge of the project at the city's transport department.

"It wouldn't be particularly fast... but it would be reliable - there's no such thing as a traffic jam on the Seine."

There have been ferries on the river for hundreds of years. The services reached their height in the mid-19th century but were gradually killed off by the success of the underground metro, and, between the wars, a rapidly developing bus service.

Today, passenger traffic on the Seine is confined mainly to the bateaux-mouches: the big, ungainly, glass-topped craft that carry thousands of tourists every day.

"This project is part of a longstanding policy of restoring, reclaiming, redeveloping and reinvigorating Paris's river," Mr Roy said.

"The main obstacles to a riverbus service until recently have been financial and technical. We've solved the latter, and think we've cracked the former."

Modern multi-hulled, dual-engined vessels were stable enough to allow a ferry service in both directions, up and down stream, he said.

Older designs were harder to manoeuvre, and potentially dangerous, when approaching a landing stage travelling with the current.

The initial £31m cost, covering a fleet of 22 ferries - enough for a service running at 20-minute intervals - and 35 landing stages, would be met by regional, city and local authorities.

Projections suggest the riverbuses could expect to make some 4m passenger trips a year.