Trottoir roulant rapide

The trottoir roulant rapide.

The trottoir roulant rapide, abbreviated TTR, was an experimental high speed moving walkway installed at the Métro station Montparnasse-Bienvenüe in Paris, France. At its fastest section, the walkway was capable of moving at a speed of 9km/h (2.5m/s).

The walkway was designed by French company CNIM, and installed in July 2002.

Users first entered a slow moving section of the walkway in which underfoot rollers accelerated them to the speed of the faster moving walkway, which users would then step onto following the roller section. At the end of the walkway, a similar roller section was used to decelerate the rider, enabling them to step off the walkway. In the middle section users were able to walk normally.

The walkway resulted in complaints and injuries due to the complex nature of boarding and leaving the fast-moving section of the walkway, particularly the requirement for users to maintain a hold on the handrail during the roller sections to avoid losing balance. Likewise the walkway was not suitable for the disabled, nor was it usable if the user did not have a hand free to hold the moving handrail.

In May 2009 RATP announced that the walkway would be replaced by a more conventional walkway, travelling at 0.8m/s (2.9km/h), by March 2011.

External links

• Walkway propels Paris metro into future – BBC news article.
• How the moving walkway nearly overtook the Metro – New Scientist article.