Montparnasse - Bienvenüe Metro Station

Montparnasse–Bienvenüe (French pronunciation: ​[mɔ̃paʁnas bjɛ̃v(ə)ny]) is a station of the Paris Métro which is a transfer point between Line 4, Line 6, Line 12 and Line 13. The fourth busiest station on the Métro system as of 2019 with 29.9 million riders, it is located in Montparnasse at the intersection of the 6th, 14th and 15th arrondissements.

Location

The stations of Lines 4 and 12 are located to the north under the Boulevard du Montparnasse while those of Lines 6 and 13 are south under Boulevard de Vaugirard and Avenue du Maine respectively.

History

Station map

On 24 April 1906 the station opened as Montparnasse station on the Avenue du Maine at the southern end of the old Gare Montparnasse (at the site currently occupied by the Tour Montparnasse, before the station was moved south of the Avenue du Maine in the 1960s) with the opening of the extension of Line 2 South from Passy to Place d'Italie. On 14 October 1907 Line 2 South became part of Line 5. On 11 March 1910 the Montparnasse station was renamed Avenue du Maine and on 30 June 1933 it was again renamed, to Bienvenüe in honour of the principal engineer of the Paris Métro, Fulgence Bienvenüe (accounting for the unusual diaeresis in the station's name). On 12 October 1942 the section of Line 5 between Étoile and Place d'Italie, including Bienvenüe, was transferred from Line 5 to Line 6 in order to separate the underground and elevated sections of the Métro (because the latter were more vulnerable to air attack during World War II).

The Line 4 platforms opened as Montparnasse in the Boulevard du Montparnasse, near the main entrance of the old Gare Montparnasse (on its northern side) on 9 January 1910 as part of the connecting section of the line under the Seine between Châtelet and Raspail. The Line 12 platforms were opened in the Boulevard du Montparnasse on 5 November 1910 as part of the first section of the Nord-Sud Company's Line C from Porte de Versailles to Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. This line was taken over by the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris and was renamed Line 12 on 27 March 1931. In 1913 a connection was opened between the platforms of Lines 4 and Line 12 situated on the Boulevard du Montparnasse, both called Montparnasse.

The Line 13 platforms opened in the Avenue du Maine as Bienvenüe on 21 January 1937 as part of the original Line 14 between there and Porte de Vanves, and were connected to the Line 5 platforms. This line became part of Line 13 on 9 November 1976.

Connecting the southern and northern stations

At the end of the 1930s, a long corridor was built to connect the Montparnasse and Bienvenüe stations. Accordingly, the stations' names were fused to create Montparnasse-Bienvenüe on 6 October 1942. This long corridor is now equipped with moving walkways to facilitate access between the two parts of the station. The old Bienvenüe station serves lines 6 and 13, while the old Montparnasse station serves lines 4 and 12.

In 2002, in an experimental move, the RATP installed a moving walkway that moved at 12 km/h, which was then termed the "fastest in the world." (The speed has however since been reduced to 9 km/h). The first several metres consist of metal rollers that accelerate passengers as they hold onto the handrail, because it would be dangerous to step directly onto the fast-moving conveyor. However, RATP announced in May 2009 that they would replace the walkway with an ordinary one in March 2011 in response to 'numerous customer complaints concerning safety and unreliability'.

Barrière du Maine

The southern part of the station in the Avenue du Maine was the location of the Barrière du Maine, a gate built for the collection of taxation as part of the Wall of the Farmers-General; the gate was built between 1784 and 1788 and demolished in the nineteenth century.

Passenger services

Access

The station has seven entrances:

• Entrance 1: Porte Océane: direct access to the SNCF station, stairs and escalators;
• Entrance 2: Place Bienvenüe: a staircase at 32 Avenue du Maine;
• Entrance 4: Tour Montparnasse: a staircase at Place Raoul-Dautry (between the tower and the train station);
• Entrance 5: Boulevard du Montparnasse: two staircases at 71 and 73 Boulevard du Montparnasse;
• Entrance 6: Rue d'Odessa: a staircase and escalator at 1 Rue du Départ;
• Entrance 7: Rue du Départ: direct access to the basement of the shopping center;
• Entrance 8: Rue de Rennes: a staircase at 59 bis, Boulevard du Montparnasse.

Platforms

The platforms of Line 6 are decorated in the Mouton style with orange tiles and orange luminous lighting strips. Those of Line 12 are in the Ouï-dire style with green lighting strips and Motte seats, white flat tiles and white cylindrical advertising frames. The platforms of Line 13 are built in the Andreu-Motte style with green lightning strips and green tiled benches, tympanum's and openings. Green Motte seats are married with the original CMP decoration (white bevelled tiled walls, the name in faience and honey colour advertising frames). These platforms are equipped with platform screen doors. In 2017, the platforms of Line 4 were under construction.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Montparnasse–Bienvenüe (Paris Métro)" and modified on February 21, 2022 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.