You may experience it if you work early or are a party animal, getting around at night isn’t always easy. When the metro and RER are closed, the only solution is the Noctiliens. These night buses have seen their attendance increase by 30% in 7 years.
Paris, Châtelet, 1 a.m., people flock to the Noctilien bus stops. Gwenaël works in catering, he left his job at midnight Porte Maillot and his return trip is far from over: Châtelet, Juvisy then Corbeil-Essonne. Arrival scheduled for 3am, a journey of 2.5 hours in total, 1 hour more than during the day. “You can trust the night bus unless you miss itit takes a little longer than the train but without that I have to take a car so it’s more practical to take the bus, it costs less” admits the employee.
Line N22 starts at Juvisy, it has 63 stops • © France 3 PIDF
On the N22 line which serves Rungis and Orly in particular, the stops go by and on the bus you meet workers and night owls. “I knew about the creation of the N71 line. Before we had 30 people at night now we have 300 people at night” reports Jacques Cousin, RATP bus driver. “We have people who leave work, others who go there, others who come back from clubs or from some outing, but there are people contrary to what people think. The Noctilien serves a purpose”.
At 2:30 a.m., the bus reaches the Rungis international market. Several Noctilien lines intersect here and early morning workers are already waiting for their bus. This is the case of this baker who left Fresnes a little earlier: “as I go to work at 4am, I took the bus to come here and then I take another bus to go to Gare de Lyon and then I take another bus to go to work”. Like him, many of them depend on the Noctilien to go to work.
Since the front lines in 1921via the Noctambus and then the Noctilien, the nighttime network has continued to grow denser with the arrival of new lines, but billboards sometimes have trouble keeping up. “If he is late, we don’t really know what time he will arrive. That’s the problem, it’s mainly passenger information, but the service is good.” confirms Aziz, a regular at Noctilien.
A network that welcomes more and more passengers. 4am, at Saint-Lazare station, the N151 towards Mantes-la-Jolie is full.
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