[Tribune du Groupe] Mars/Avril 2023
Retards, pannes, annulations, privatisation : halte à la dégradation des transports publics !
Le 23 janvier aux assises des transports franciliens, vos élu(e)s Socialistes étaient mobilisé(e)s avec les élu(e)s, les salarié(e)s des transports, les usagères et les usagers pour dire STOP aux galères quotidiennes dans nos transports et dénoncer les dégradations et les retards que subissent les Val-de-Marnaises et les Val-de-Marnais, comme tous les Franciliens.
En 2022, le RER B a battu des records d’irrégularité avec des pannes de signalisation, des problèmes matériels et des absences de personnels qui se sont ajoutés aux dysfonctionnements habituels et à la surcharge de la ligne. Le RER D n’a pas été en reste, avec des retards et des incidents répétés impactant les conditions de transports d’usagères et d’usagers, qui ont aussi subi des suppressions de trains sur le RER C, comme sur les autres lignes du Transilien et sur les bus, par manque de personnel ou par mesures d’économies.
Face à ces dysfonctionnements, nous dénonçons la dégradation des transports et demandons que des transports en commun plus réguliers, plus accessibles, peu chers et peu polluants soient la priorité de nos politiques publiques.
En outre, nous alertons les Val-de-Marnaises et les Val-de-Marnais sur les dangers que suscite, désormais, la perspective de la privatisation des transports, comme nous l’avions déjà fait le 12 décembre au Conseil départemental en déposant un vœu auquel l’exécutif avait refusé de s’associer.
Ile-de-France Mobilités a engagé le processus de privatisation de l’exploitation des lignes de bus gérées par la RATP, et dont l’État est l’actionnaire unique.
En dépit des risques de dégradation des conditions de travail et de la qualité de l’offre, la Présidente d’IDFM Valérie Pécresse a décidé d’ouvrir le 1er janvier 2025 au secteur privé des lignes de bus exploitées par la RATP, ce qui aurait un impact social pour les 14 500 machinistes, et toutes les catégories d’emplois qui concourent à l’activité bus, qui s’inquiètent de savoir si leur rémunération actuelle serait garantie, avec la transformation des contrats de travail de droit public des personnels concernés, en contrat de droit privé.
Au regard des valeurs du service public qui nous sont chères, cette privatisation ne serait bénéfique ni pour les usagères et usagers, ni pour les salariés et les salariées, ni pour l’intérêt général !
Avec les élu(e)s, les salariés des transports, les associations et les organisations syndicales, nous réclamons aux pouvoirs publics le retour de l’offre à 100 % des transports publics, qui ne pourra se faire que par de nouvelles sources de financement et l’abandon de la privatisation des lignes exploitées par la RATP et la SNCF.
Alors que notre région souffre de sous-investissements dans les infrastructures de transports nous demandons à l’Etat de différer la privatisation des transports et d’engager des moyens pour rétablir la qualité de service sur le réseau francilien. Il serait dangereux de déstabiliser davantage le système de transports, par une privatisation qui empêcherait le développement du réseau et la modernisation de l’existant.
Plus que jamais, il revient à l’Etat de créer d’urgence les conditions d’un financement durable des transports publics franciliens, sans hausse des tarifs.
A ce titre, la subvention accordée par le gouvernement à IDFM pour son budget 2023 ne constitue en rien une solution pérenne, et ne permet pas d’épargner les usagers, qui ne veulent plus être les variables d’ajustement des bras de fer entre l’Etat, la région Ile-de-France et Ile-de-France Mobilités !
Bruno Hélin, président du groupe socialiste, Isabelle Santiago, Mohamed Chikouche, Frédérique Hachmi, Antoine Pelissolo, Josette Sol, Samuel Besnard
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Trains in Miraculous Ladybug - Part 1: The Metro Train
Part 1: The Metro Train (you are here)
[Part 2: The Metro Station]
[Part 3: Startrain]
[Part 4: The Gare du Nord]
[Bonus: The Bus]
Time to finally put this blog’s URL to use again. I’ve been putting this off for literally almost a year now. All the real pictures here were taken when my sister and I were in Paris in March last year, which was interesting, since the lockdown there really started on the last day I was there.
Anyway: “Miraculous - Les Aventures de Ladybug et Chat Noir”, or Miraculous Ladybug in short, is a French-Korean-Japanese animated TV show (close enough for my purposes) set in Paris, which sometimes features trains. Let’s review them. Since there is a lot to say here, I’ll split this into several parts. This one is about the Metro train, the next will be about the metro station, and then after that probably the Startrain.
The Metro is the most important mass transit system in Paris. It is huge. How huge exactly?
[Image description: Identical screenshots with different language subtitles. Chat Noir explains to Ladybug in French (first picture) or English (second picture) there are 200 km or 140 miles of subway tracks in Paris.]
[I’ll add image descriptions for everything unless I’m describing the image in the surrounding text anyway, I hope that’s okay.]
Nerd. He’s right, by the way, as of the airing of the show, but this figure is going to double over the next ten years (if everything goes according to plan), because there is a massive project to build more subway lines especially in the outskirts of Paris right now.
(Why does he know that? Maybe he likes random trivia. Maybe just because. Maybe for this kid, who can’t drive cars, and who is locked in his home by his abusive father, the Metro represents freedom, moving through the city at will, something he desperately craves…)
In the show, the Metro is a repeated location for quite a few episodes, which the fan wiki helpfully lists. I’d make fun of them but it’s been really useful for this post. Though you are, of course, free to make fun of both of us.
It’s not something that any of the main characters use daily, but it keeps coming up. As a result, it has been the site of some of the show’s most important moments.
[Image description: Screenshot, featuring Ladybug and Chat Noir in a metro train; Ladybug has fallen onto Chat Noir; subtitle says “purring”]
The show likes to reuse its 3D assets, so it features only one metro train, this one:
[Image description: Metro train with open doors; Marinette is running to catch it.]
In other shows, this might have been a completely fake invented train, or something that vaguely looks like a train, but Miraculous Ladybug is actually fairly accurate here: This is a good representation of an MP 73 train. Here is how it looks in real life:
Correct color, correct numbering, mostly correct details, they actually did really well here. From the angle of the screenshot, the train could also be an MF 67, since they have basically the same body:
That’s actually quite clever of the show’s writers, since this means their train can stand in for trains on quite a number of lines (not that the show ever gets specific about lines). To tell that this is an MP 73 and not an MF 67, we need to look deeper, literally: At the wheels. The MF 67 runs on steel wheels (MF - Matériel Fer - (Rolling) stock with iron (wheels)). The MP 73, on the other hand, runs on tires. Seriously.
Some of the lines of the Paris Metro use a special system (invented here, but also used in a few other places) where the trains don’t (normally) run on steel wheels, but instead on what are basically truck tires. It looks like this:
As you can see, underneath the end of the train is an assembly that has two wheels with tires, running normally, and then two smaller wheels lying essentially flat. The smaller wheels are touching special guide bars next to the rails; this is what guides the train.
If you look at the track (see below), you will see that there are essentially normal railway tracks, but then next to that are bars (made out of steel or concrete) on which the rubber wheels run.
This system was invented to build trains that accelerate better, are quieter and more comfortable. According to reports, it succeeded at that, but I think that really says more about the old trains (the historic Sprague-Thompsons) they replaced. In practice and compared to other, newer Paris metro lines with normal rails, the MP 73 are very noisy and their ride is very bumpy. The noise, which is a constant rubber screeching, is very distinctive though.
A number of lines in Paris have been converted, and others built like that, but right now there are no plans to convert the remaining lines, and the new lines being built on the outskirts will all use normal rails.
Anyway, all this is relevant to Miraculous Ladybug because the show’s creators actually made sure to portray this correctly. We can see this best in Queen Bee. There we see the train from the front, with the horizontal guide wheels plainly visible:
We get close-up shots from underneath, again showing the guide wheels, and showing that the train still has normal steel wheels as well - which is accurate, that’s what they use to guide the train through switches.
We get close-up shots of the tracks, showing both the running beams next to the tracks, and the higher guide beams a bit further out.
There’s even a close-up of the wheels, glowing orange for some reason.
This is a delight. They portrayed everything important correctly on screen. The tunnel, by the way, is also accurate, those really have these red and white and stripes and those tight curves.
The only problem with Queen Bee (apart from Chloé’s actions) is that they didn’t add in the proper sounds. I have no idea whether they didn’t bother, whether the sound editors didn’t know, or whether they purposefully decided that accurate sounds would be too confusing. I’m also not sure where that orange glow is coming from there.
On the inside, the train is also really well modeled. I would say it is essentially accurate. That is what they and the closely related MF 67 really look like.
[Image: Screenshot, interior of the MP 73 subway car.]
They do include the windows you can use to look into the next car.
[Image: Screenshot, Alya waving through a window, while Marinette is hiding behind her.]
They also accurately portray the fold-down seats that are attached to the normal seats next to the entryways.
[Image: Screenshot, Marinette sitting on one of these folding seats, even though lots of regular seats are free.]
[Image: Screenshot of other people sitting on these folding seats.]
When I first saw this episode (Backwarder), I thought it made no sense that Marinette would sit down there instead of the fixed seats. Turns out that everybody who uses the Metro ends up doing this, including me. It just saves you a few seconds if you’re not planning on going far, I dunno.
In a few episodes, we also got shots of the cab, such as in Queen Bee, when Tom Dupain tries in vain to stop the train:
[Image: Screenshot, Close-up of the controls of the cab, with a finger pushing a button]
Similarly in Puppeteer, when Adrien uses it as a convenient transformation spot:
[Image: Screenshot, Adrien standing in front of the cab door while the train driver is running away.]
I’m afraid I don’t have pictures of the cab myself, but you can find some on Wikipedia. And based on that, I would say the cab seems generally like a good representation. There are certainly details, like a few buttons in a wrong position, but overall, really close. Note that Tom Dupain is pushing the wrong button to stop the train (he’d have to pull a handle which is out of shot, which is what the train driver actually does eventually), but that is realistic here: He has no idea what to do, after all.
As someone who is used to animators just not caring about trains (because none of the viewers, other than me, care), this whole thing is a breath of fresh air. The creators of Miraculous Ladybug have created this fairly minor detail with far more care and attention to detail than they needed to, and I can only thank them for that.
But obviously, this is the internet, and love is boring. So let’s nitpick some.
An easy thing is when they just make things up, like when they add huge advertisement screens in Queen Bee and Prime Queen.
[Image: Screenshot, Ladybug standing inside a metro car, which has huge screens at the end wall, and long smaller screens at the long walls at roof-level.]
While newer trains are getting screens, they’re not getting that many, and the older trains just don’t have any. That said, this episode adds lots of pointless unrealistic TV screens everywhere, so it is not that surprising that the metro suffers from this as well.
Another thing in the same episode and a few others is that while the cab is accurate, the gauges are not. In Puppeteer, the big black round thing here:
[Image: Screenshot, showing the cab, with a speedometer that goes up to 120, and labels reading both mph and km/h, and what appears to be a tachometer display. Also, Plagg.]
The speedometer is in the right place, but why does it go that high? The MP 67 can only reach up to 70 km/h (43.5 mph). I’m also fairly certain that it doesn’t have this odometer in this location. That looks like they took a graphic of a car speedometer display and inserted it here. And if all of that isn’t inaccurate enough for you, note that in this scene, the train is stationary, but the speedometer is reading about 35. That is obviously a bit incorrect.
Another few inaccurate gauges come from us courtesy of Queen Bee:
That thing on the left is a gasoline car rev counter, with two hands for some reason. Next to it appears to be… another one of those, but with only one hand and only reaching up to eight. Barely visible on the right is what appears to be a voltage gauge for 12 V batteries.
Meanwhile Prime Queen gives us a completely different speedometer, but one that is also wrong:
Note how it is both mph and km/h, with the miles bigger, and how it reaches up to 160 mph or 250 km/h. There is no reason why a Paris metro car would have miles, and moreover, why it would have a speedometer that goes that high. The speed that’s shown here, a bit under 90 mph or 150 km/h, is about twice of what it can actually reach. It would have long derailed by this point.
Too nitpicky? Okay, there are also some things on the outside. For one, the doors are flush with the body, and open outwards. In real life, they doors are instead inset a bit, and they move into a slit between the outer and inner wall of the car body. Metro cars with doors that slide out like this do actually exist; in fact Marseille and Lyon have ones based on the MP 73′s technology (though looking very differently) that work like this. For Paris, it’s wrong though.
On the front, they have a very interesting mistake: The dark gray area has a crease in it. These trains did indeed have this crease… until they got repainted and got the dark gray area; during that work the crease was covered, for some reason. So the crease is correct, and the paint scheme is correct, but the combination of both is wrong.
Another issue is that the actual MP 73 has tiny wheel arches, while the MF 67 doesn’t. This one here lacks the wheel arches as well.
The biggest problem I have is probably with the windscreen. The windscreen of the real car reaches all the way to the roof, and has an area to show some random numbers here. The MF 67 actually shows its destination in the upper windscreen area, but the MP 73 doesn’t. This is probably because the MF 67 is used on lines that have forks with some trains going to one station and others to others, so you need to know where a given train is going, while all trains on the line 6 (where the MP 73 is mostly used) just go to the end. In the show, they removed the upper part of the windscreen, and have curved the roof down. I have no idea why. It makes the whole train look too wide and makes the proportions seem off, when they actually are (as far as I can tell) completely accurate.
All of these are really minor niggles in the end, though. There’s a lot of criticism of the show, some of it valid, a lot of it… well, not quite. But the metro train is really solid work, and they can be proud of that.
If you want to ride an MP 73 for yourself, they run mostly on the line 6 (there is also one on the line 11). Much of the line 6 is above ground, though it does have a few underground stations. The line 6 is also the only metro line from which you can get a good view of the Eiffel Tower, between Passy and Bir-Hakeim. Its more common normal-wheeled sibling, the MF 67, can be found on lines 3, 3bis, 10 and 12. Both will probably be replaced by the end of the decade. It is possible but in my opinion not that likely that they’ll be repainted into a livery with white, gray and light blue before then, which is currently slowly being rolled out across all of Paris’s mass transit.
Next time, we’ll discuss the station infrastructure. That should probably not be quite as long.
Part 1: The Metro Train (you are here)
[Part 2: The Metro Station]
[Part 3: Startrain]
[Part 4: The Gare du Nord]
[Bonus: The Bus]
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