2024 map of Paris subway

The Paris subway map updated in 2022 presented below is the most recent usual schematic map of the subway. The schematic representation of the lines does not respect the real geographical position of the stations nor the distances between stations. However, this plan makes it possible to present in a limited space all the stations of the subway as well as the intramural RER with their name, and to clearly see the correspondences.

The contours of the city of Paris and the Seine are themselves schematized.

To display an unscheduled map, with a real layout of the subway lines and stations positioned with their real geographical coordinates, you can go to the interactive subway map.

To download the Paris subway map, right-click on the map and select save image as

To move around the map, place the mouse on the map and move it while keeping the left button pressed. To zoom, double click on the subway map or use the mouse wheel after clicking once on the map

The first line of the Paris subway (metro in french ! ) was built at the very end of the 19th century and inaugurated in 1900, for the Universal Exhibition. But since then, in a century of existence, the subway map has undergone many changes. Some lines have been lengthened, with the creation of new stations, particularly in the suburbs. Other stations have been canceled because of their attendance deemed too low, while a number have changed names. Over the years, the route of some subway lines has been modified. Thus, line 5, which started from Place de l'Etoile to go to Gare du Nord, passing through Place d'Italie and taking a large part of the current route of line 6, has since 1942 departed from Place d 'Italy ! New subway lines have also been created over the years, the very last being line 14, which came into service at the end of the 1990s. Gradually the subway map of Paris has therefore become more and more complex, with no less than 16 underground lines (counting the small lines 3b (1.2km) and 7b (3km) which only include a few stations), 5 lines of RER, and in total more than 300 subway stations and many interconnections.

The underground network of Paris is today one of the densest in the world, in number of stations per square kilometer, because the stations are relatively close to each other. It is also one of the most practical, as it allows you to get to any point in Paris relatively quickly. But this complexity and this large number of stations in such a small space have as a consequence that it has become difficult to make a map of the Paris metro that is at the same time readable, easily understood and simple to use, without taking up too much space.

So that, despite this complexity and density, the Paris subway map remains legible, we are thinking about a schematic representation of its cartography. The first proposals for schematic plans of the Paris underground were made by the Englishman Beck in 1945 and then in 1955. These plans represented the subway lines by portions of straight lines joined together by 45 degree curves, with codes different colors for each line. Although this type of scheme has been adopted by most subways in the world, Parisians judged the result far too far from the geographical reality of Paris, and rejected the subway maps proposed by Beck. It will be necessary to wait a few more decades for Paris to adopt a schematic plan of its subway anyway, with a simplified layout of the lines, independent of physical reality, but without going as far into abstraction as the plans of the Paris subway proposed. by Beck: we recognize the general shape of Paris, the subway lines are schematic but their shape and their general geographical orientation are preserved. Thus, each user can easily locate the name of the stations, the terminuses, the connections and the route of the different lines, identified by color codes, while having an approximate idea of the geographical location of the station in Paris.

2024 Paris subway map

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