Arc Express

Arc Express was a project to build new rapid transit lines in île-de-France, France. It was designed to satisfy the need for increased travel among the suburbs of Paris and to relieve the saturation of a number of radial lines, such as Métro Line 13 and RER Line A. Previous proposals for an orbital metro line, dating back to the early 1980s, never came to fruition.

Official studies of the Arc Express were launched by the president of Île-de-France region in December 2007. The project was superseded by the Grand Paris Express project.

The projected schedule included the following steps over approximately ten years:

In November 2006, the Île-de-France region submitted a draft master plan of the Île-de-France (SDRIF) that took into account the interests of the politicians and the population for an orbital metro ring through the inner suburbs.

From 2006 to 2008, initial studies on the project identified a zone of territory in which the Arc Express could be built. The proposed SDRIF, adopted by the Regional Council on September 25, 2008, proposed to study the construction of four arcs:

Rainbow Express was included in the proposed 2007-2013 CPER, finalized on March 23, 2007 by the regional chair and the regional prefect.

On 5 December 2007, the project was officially launched by Jean-Paul Huchon, the president of the Île-de-France region and Pierre Mutz, the prefect of the region, through the launching of studies funded by the state and region for €4 million. These studies focused particularly focused on the two priority arcs:

However, Christian Blanc, Secretary of State for the Capital Region, has expressed his opposition, casting doubt on the financing to be provided by the state. On April 29, 2009, French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed a metro network including 130 km of automated lines. An attempt to reconcile these two proposals is underway.

On 8 July 2009, the STIF council unanimously approved the "record of objectives and main features" of the Project Arc Express. This vote starts the phase of public debate and consultation, through a referral to the National Commission on Public Debate (CNDP). The traffic studies conducted by STIF predict daily traffic for the whole Arc Express of about one million passengers. The costs of the line, including rolling stock necessary for commissioning and interconnection with existing stations is estimated to be between:

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