Users of the Paris metro knowit well: come rain, snow or shine, it's always very windy in the corridors and exits of the metro. If you've never seen your hat fly off when changing lines at Nation, throw us the first ticket!
But why are draughts so powerful and frequent in the metro? There are several reasons.
The first cause of these sometimes extreme draughts is the metro trains themselves. More precisely, thepiston effect. Interviewed by the Huffington Post, the head of the ventilation department at Egis, a company specializing in urban transport engineering, explains that the arrival and departure of trains in stations causes large displacements of air, which then rush into the metro corridors. What's more, these stations are old, and weren't built to cope with the faster, more frequent trains we have today: so they have trouble regulating these all-too-frequent air currents," explains Frédéric Waymel.
Ventilation shafts can be used to expel these winds generated by the metro, when they are not closed due to weather conditions or maintenance.
RATP, interviewed by BFMTV journalists, confirms that the piston effect is one of the main causes of these draughts. " They have two identified origins: the circulation of trains in tunnels, which causes what we call a 'piston' effect, and the ventilators installed in metro and RER tunnels to ensure air renewal and smoke extraction ", adds the Parisian transport operator. These winds are therefore also necessary to improve the air in the basement and evacuate smoke.
If you want to avoid these winds worthy of the Mediterranean's greatest mistrals, discover alternative means of transport in Paris.
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