As the Seinne subsides and Paris gets back to normal, one of its biggest ever rail projects gets under way.

The  €25bn Grand Paris Express metro began on June 4 with a ground-breaking ceremony at the site of the future Fort d’Issy-Vanves-Clamart station.

The first phase of the project, Line 15 South, will see 16 stations linking the southern suburbs of Paris. This phase is scheduled for completion in 2022 at a cost of  €5.7bn. The project is being overseen by Société du Grand Paris (SGP), who will be co-ordinating over 1500 engineering experts.

The new Grand Paris Express Line 15 should see over 200km of new line and 68 new stations. There will be trains of 2.80m wide and 108m long travelling at speeds of up to 120 kph.  It is anticipated that the new 33km line will carry about 300,000 passengers every day with a projected morning rush of up to 34 560 passengers per hour.

This project is technically challenging, and will do much to ease the economic, social and cultural issues that are caused by the current public transport limitations.