Paris’s Grand Paris Express project has reached a landmark milestone with the opening of Line 18, a fully automated metro line connecting Orly Airport to Versailles via the Paris-Saclay technology cluster. The driverless trains run every 90 seconds during peak hours, carrying up to 40,000 passengers per hour in each direction.
Line 18 is part of the โฌ36 billion Grand Paris Express network โ the largest metro expansion in Europe โ which will add 200 km of new lines and 68 stations to the Paris region by 2030. The project is designed to decongest the existing heavily overloaded network and connect suburban communities previously poorly served by public transport.
The automated trains are equipped with real-time obstacle detection, platform screen doors, and AI-powered passenger flow management systems. รle-de-France Mobilitรฉs, the regional transport authority, estimates the new line will serve 180,000 passengers per day once fully operational.
