The central Line 1, which allows passengers to hop out at the Champs Elyseés, the Louvre, the Bastille and the falafel joints of the Marais district, is to be converted into a fully automatic service in which traditional train drivers will no longer be needed.
Although the director of the metro, Serge Lagrange, has insisted the makeover was not inspired by the desire for an anti-strike line, unions point out that the reliance on machines instead of people will make the service far less vulnerable to strike action.
While it may be bad news for the 250 train drivers who are expected to be taken off Line 1 by the end of the three-year makeover, the switch is likely to be welcomed by Parisian commuters whose journeys are often disrupted when drivers down their tools.
Several strikes in protest at the government's handling of the economic downturn have this year reminded the city how easily its overstretched public transport system can buckle under the pressure of mass walkouts.
Although made far less crippling by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's minimum service law, which made it a legal requirement that a certain number of staff stay in place during stoppages, recent actions have belied the president's inflammatory remark last year that "these days, when there's a strike, no one notices".
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