La Plaine Saint Denis is a 7 sq.km-area in the near suburbs of Paris where many factories were set up during the 19th Century. Following the closure of most of them in the 1970s - 1980s, it turned into a wide industrial wasteland. At the beginning of the 1990s, an urban project was planned to redevelop this area. The first studies underlined the necessity to enhance public transport services in the area. Many transport infrastructures were passing through La Plaine: two suburban railway lines (RER B and D) and a motorway, but they did not serve the territory well enough. Consequently, the urban project included the development of a new tramway line, the extension of metro line 12 and the complete refurbishing of the Plaine Voyageurs station on RER line B (express regional network), which was, at the moment, the only public transport station serving the area. In 1992, France was chosen to be the host country for the 1998 Football World Cup. For this purpose, a stadium able to welcome about 80 000 spectators had to be built near Paris. The government decided to locate this stadium in La Plaine Saint Denis as it offered wide surfaces to be urbanised near Paris. Local politicians agreed with the stadiums project, on condition that the coherence of the urban project would be preserved and that it would be served mostly by public transport: the target was a modal split of 63% for public transport. As a matter of fact, very few parking places were built compared to the capacity of the stadium (about 5,000). The public transport network was deeply improved: the RER B station was rebuilt and a new railway station was created on RER D. At the very beginning, these stations aimed mainly at transporting spectators to the stadium (for various events: football, athletics and other sports, and also concerts). But they soon became an incentive to the development of the area. The building of the stadium and the new railway stations gave the opportunity to improve the pre-existing urban project, while adapting it to the new circumstances. La Plaine Saint Denis has now become very attractive for companies and real-estate developers due to its advantages: low land prices, location next to Paris, transport infrastructures. The new RER stations have been a key factor, as they allow a lot of commuters either to work or to live in Plaine Saint Denis: regeneration took place at first around the new stations. About ten years after the building of the Stade de France, the first results are here: the population living in La Plaine has grown from 6 400 in 1999 to 16 000 in 2004 and thousands of jobs have already been created. This paper will present the key elements of the ex post appraisal study of the two new railway stations created in la Plaine Saint Denis. It will also attempt to explain how they may have played a role in the urban, economic and social development of a declining area. For the covering abstract see ITRD E137145.
Abstract