Auber (Paris RER)

Auber is a station on Line A of the RER in Paris. Opened on 23 November 1971 it was at the time the largest underground station in the world, and represents a feat of underground engineering.

The station comprises a main train hall with a superposed ticket hall, together with an extensive network of particularly spacious tunnels connecting to the neighbouring Métro stations Opéra, Havre-Caumartin and Saint-Lazare, as well as Haussmann - Saint-Lazare on the RER Line E.

It takes its name from "rue Auber", under which it is situated. This street is in turn named after the 19th-century composer Daniel-François-Esprit Auber.

Engineering

"Auber" is built in the style of the traditional vaulted Métro station as pioneered by Fulgence Bienvenüe, with central tracks and lateral platforms. The difference in engineering terms is that "Auber" (along with Charles de Gaulle - Étoile and Nation stations) was constructed at depth, entirely underground, and on a far larger scale than any Métro station.

In order to build the 225m-long, 24m-wide train hall and its even more immense piggy-backing ticket hall, it was necessary to excavate a cavity 40m wide, 20m high and 250m long—and this 30m underneath the busy city centre in unstable waterlogged sedimentary rock. [Gerondeau C, 2003, p33] The resulting station is cathedral-like in proportions, with a ticket hall so spacious that there is even room for a mezzanine. The entire construction is waterproofed on both sides by a 7m-thick, 10m-high abutment of concrete in which are contained escalators linking the two levels. [Gerondeau C, 2003, p158]

The station's eccentrically audacious scale and damp setting earned it references as "the world's largest submarine". With the other two deep single-vaulted stations on the RER Line A it has been retrospectively criticised on cost grounds, and in 2007 was in need of modernisation. However, "Auber" seems a good example of a planning policy attached to grand public spaces that was particularly current in the 1960s and in France. It is certainly possible to make a defence of the station on the basis of its originality and its sheer spaciousness.

Records

"Auber" forms part of a complex of connected underground stations (see below). Due to the scale of "Auber" in particular, this ensemble can probably claim to be the largest underground station in the world in terms of volume.

Lines serving this station

* RER Line A

Connected stations

* Haussmann - St-Lazare
** RER Line E
* Havre-Caumartin
** Metro Line 3
** Metro Line 9
* Opéra (Metro)
** Metro Line 3
** Metro Line 7
** Metro Line 8
* Saint-Augustin
** Metro Line 9
* Saint-Lazare
** Metro Line 3
** Metro Line 12
** Metro Line 13
** Metro Line 14
* Saint-Lazare (SNCF)

ee also

* List of stations of the Paris RER
* List of stations of the Paris Métro

Bibliography

* Gerondeau, C. (2003). "La Saga du RER et le maillon manquant," Paris: Presse de l'École nationale des ponts et chaussées. ISBN 2-85978-368-7. ("French")

Notes