The tunnel under the center of Aubervilliers had already been dug for the previous extension of the line to the Front Populaire station, on the city limits, at the end of 2012, but the stations remained to be dug.
"These 2 km were particularly difficult from a geotechnical point of view. The metro was built in a large pocket of water which caused a lot of concern," said RATP CEO Catherine Guillouard during a meeting. inauguration ceremony.
These difficulties, and the health crisis, led to a four and a half year delay compared to the initial schedule. The cost has also jumped from 175 to 244 million euros.
The new stations inaugurated on Tuesday, Aimé Césaire and the terminus Mairie d'Aubervilliers, have the same minimalist and functional architecture as the two stations inaugurated in January on line 4 in Bagneux (Hauts-de-Seine), south of the capital. A connection is planned at the terminus with the future line 15 (circular) of the Grand-Paris metro, in 2030 if all goes well, and at Front Populaire with a planned extension of the T8 tramway.
"There will be an incredible enhancement of this territory", launched Valérie Pécresse, the president of the Ile-de-France region and Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the organizing authority for transport in the Paris region. . "Because who says transport says business, who says business says jobs, who says employment says valuations," she added.
"You will find yourself where everything will be created, where everything will move, where everything will be done," she said. The population of Aubervilliers has already increased by 15%, to 90.000 today, since the opening of the Front Populaire resort.
"It will be an opportunity to completely revitalize the city center, to renovate it, to revitalize it," insisted the elected official (LR).
IDFM and RATP expect 40.000 additional passengers per day on line 12, which currently carries 250.000.
"In such a short time, we will never have had so many line openings", noted for his part the general manager of IDFM Laurent Probst, citing - in addition to the construction of the Grand Paris metro - the extensions lines 14 and 4, and that of line 11 to the east, still in Seine-Saint-Denis, which should be put into service in the summer of 2023.