What is "noctilien"

Noctilien is the night bus service in Paris and its agglomeration. It is managed by the Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France (STIF), the Île-de-France regional public transit authority, and operated by RATP and SNCF. It replaced the previous Noctambus service on the night of 20/21 September 2005, providing for a larger number of lines than before and claiming to be better adapted to night-time transport needs.

In place of the previous hub-and-spoke scheme where all buses terminated at and departed from Châtelet metro station, Noctilien's new service includes buses operating between banlieues (communes surrounding Paris proper) as well as outbound lines running from Paris' four main railway stations: Gare de l'Est, Gare de Lyon, Gare Montparnasse and Gare Saint-Lazare. In addition, these four stations are also connected to each other by a regular night bus service.

All in all, Noctilien operates 47 bus lines from the last bus of the night (00:30) until the first bus of the morning (05:30) over the whole of Paris and the Île-de-France region. It is made up of:

• 2 "circular" lines running between Paris' major train stations (N01 and N02),
• 6 "transversal" lines running between different banlieues via Châtelet,
• 19 "radial" lines managed by the RATP (2 digits lines) running from major Paris stations outward to the banlieues,
• 18 "radial" lines managed by the SNCF (3 digits lines, with the exception of N153 managed by the RATP) running from major Paris stations and
• 2 "banlieues" line (N71 and N135).

Like Transilien, the name "Noctilien" is formed by analogy with "Francilien" — the French demonym for residents of Île-de-France.