The Paris subway firm introduced yesterday that in accordance with a vote taken at a shareholders’ assembly Friday it has modified its title from “Compagnie du Chemin de Fer Métropolitain de Paris” to “Société Générale de Traction et d’Exploitations.”
The corporate will thus drop the phrase “Métropolitain,” which, shortened into “métro,” has handed into the French language to designate any metropolis underground railway.
Its new title, which conveys little to most people, will in all probability be abbreviated to SGTE, however even when these letters change the monogram linking the primary letters of the previous title on the Paris subway trains Parisians will not be prone to cease calling their underground system the “métro.”
The board of administrators defined the change of title by plans to increase the corporate’s actions to the development of underground programs — which, by the way, have been referred to as formally “métropolitains” — in different international locations, particularly in the US.
With this finish in view, officers introduced a subsidiary firm has been fashioned underneath the title of “Société d’Études pour la Réalisation de Chemins de Fer Métropolitains” (SERM), which has already despatched two teams of consultants to America to organize stories and building plans.
— The New York Herald, European Version, June 20, 1948
