- Fare and where to buy tickets
- Metro lines
- Working hours
- History
- Peculiarities
All metros in Europe have a lot in common; modern design of stations, comfort, high degree of safety - all this can be said about almost each of them. One example of this is the Marseille Metro.
This metro does not impress with its scale or growth rate, it does not impress with the volume of passenger traffic. But, of course, this is one of the most convenient transport systems in the city. It carries out forty-nine percent of urban passenger traffic.
The metro is growing and developing, but these processes are not proceeding as fast as, for example, in the metropolitan areas of Asia, where the metro lines are literally lengthened "by leaps and bounds." Nevertheless, the Marseille metro covers more and more areas of the city, it is becoming more and more convenient for passengers (both locals and guests of the French city).
If you want to familiarize yourself with the rules of use and the features of one of its main transport systems before traveling to Marseille, the text below will help you with this.
Fare and where to buy tickets
A travel document in the Marseille metro, as in almost every metro in the world, can be purchased from one of the special machines. They are installed near the entrances to the station.
The price of a one-way ticket is just over one and a half euros. This document is valid for an hour. It is valid not only in the metro, but in all other types of public transport. This ticket gives the right to make transfers from one type of transport to another. If you got off the metro, you cannot get back to the subway with the same ticket, even if the travel document has not yet expired.
In addition to a single-trip ticket, you can purchase the following types of passes:
- for two trips;
- for ten trips;
- for twenty four hours;
- at seventy-two hours.
The cost of a single trip with a multi-ride pass is lower. In other words, buying a reusable ticket will save you money.
A ticket for two trips costs three and a half euros, a ticket for ten trips can be bought for about fourteen euros. A 24-hour pass can be purchased for approximately five and a half euros. A three-day pass costs about eleven euros.
As in many cities in the world, there is a special tourist transport card in Marseille. It gives not only the right to unlimited travel in various types of public transport, but also allows you to explore some city attractions for free. You can visit fourteen museums on it, including the Museum of Faience, the Museum of the History of Marseille, the Museum of Modern Art. You can purchase one of three types of tourist cards (they differ in terms of validity and, accordingly, in cost):
- for twenty four hours;
- for forty-eight hours;
- at seventy-two hours.
Small children (under the age of six) accompanied by an adult can enter the metro without payment.
Metro lines
As mentioned above, the Marseille metro is not impressive in scale: it consists of only two branches. They have twenty-eight stations. The total length of the tracks is over twenty kilometers. Most of the transportation system is underground.
Branches are designated by numbers. One of them is shown on the diagrams in blue, the other in red. The branches intersect in two places. At one of the nodes, you can change trains to the railway (or rather, to its station). Moreover, this is not the only interchange station in the metro where you can go to the railway platform. There are also three stations where you can change to the tram.
The blue line starts in the northeast of the city, leads to the city center, and then turns east. Its length is just over twelve kilometers. The entire line (from start to finish) can be traveled in about twenty minutes.
The red line crosses the city from north to south. Its length is about nine kilometers. The train passes it in sixteen minutes. In the near future, the line will be extended eastward. There are also plans to extend it south.
The Marseilles metro uses technology borrowed from road transport: trains are here on tires. Passengers are served by thirty-six four-car trains. The maximum capacity of each of them is four hundred and seventy two passengers. The trains were manufactured in the French city of Valenciennes. Until the mid-80s, the trains were three-car, then to increase the passenger capacity, the trains were increased by one car. The gauge is the same as in most European subways.
The daily passenger traffic is just over two hundred and ten thousand people. The transport system carries approximately seventy-seven million passengers per year.
Working hours
The trains of the Marseille Metro start moving at five o'clock in the morning. The transport system ends at one in the morning.
During periods of maximum metro congestion, trains run once every three minutes. In the evening, when the influx of passengers decreases, this interval increases significantly: trains run once every ten minutes.
History
Plans for the opening of the Marseille metro existed at the beginning of the 20th century. They appeared shortly after the Paris Metro was opened. The implementation of these plans was hampered by financial difficulties. The owners of the city's tram network fiercely opposed the opening of the new transport system. As a result, the idea of building a metro was forgotten for several decades.
In the middle of the 20th century, the tram system, which suffered significant damage during the war, was abolished (with the exception of one line) and replaced by buses. The number of private cars grew rapidly in the city, and traffic jams on the streets became more and more common. The road situation worsened, it was necessary to take measures to solve this problem. At the end of the 60s, the city administration signed a decree on the creation of a new transport system - the subway.
The Marseille metro received its first passengers in the second half of the 70s of the XX century. The Blue Line was built first. In the mid-80s, the Red Line appeared.
Peculiarities
Unlike metros such as Delhi or Kuala Lumpur, the Marseille metro does not have any exotic features, unusual rules of use or impressive station design. If we talk about the rules of use, then this metro is in many ways similar to the subways of Russian cities, and therefore Russians feel confident in it, quickly navigate in its system.
The design of the stations is generally quite simple (while their design is modern). However, some of the stations have design highlights. An example is the Old Port, one of the central stations, where the walls are decorated with mosaics on a marine theme. The walls of the station, from which you can change to the railway, are decorated with drawings on railway themes.
Trains are painted white on the outside and orange on the inside. The cars are quite quiet (in comparison, for example, with the old cars of the Moscow subway).
Official website: www.rtm.fr
Marseille Metro
