Gare du Nord

The Gare du Nord (pronounced [ɡaʁ dy nɔːʁ]) (literally Station of the North, or more simply North Station, lexically), officially Paris-Nord, is one of the six large terminus stations of the SNCF mainline network for Paris, France. It serves train services toward regions north of Paris, along the Paris–Lille railway. Near Gare de l'Est in the 10th arrondissement, the Gare du Nord offers connections with several urban transport lines, including Paris Métro, RER and buses. By the number of travelers, around 222 million per year, it is the busiest railway station in Europe by total passenger numbers.[1][2]

For the Paris Métro station, see Gare du Nord (Paris Métro). For other uses, see Gare du Nord (disambiguation).

Gare du Nord
Terminus
Main hall
Location112 Rue de Maubeuge
75010 Paris
Île-de-France
France
Coordinates48.8809°N 2.3553°E / 48.8809; 2.3553
Owned bySNCF
Line(s)Paris–Lille railway
Platforms36 (two not in service)
Other information
Station code8727103 (SNCF) / 8727102 (RER)
IATA codeXPG
Fare zone1
History
Opened1846
Rebuilt1891 (expanded 1930s–1960s)
Electrified25 kV 50 Hz
1.5 kV DC (Underground RER lines)
Traffic
Passengers222 million
Services
Preceding station   Thalys   Following station
toward Amsterdam Centraal
ThalysTerminus
toward Dortmund Hbf
Eurostar
EurostarTerminus
SNCF
TGVTerminus
Lille Europe
toward Calais
Lille Europe
toward Dunkerque
toward Valenciennes
TerminusIntercités
toward Cambrai or Maubeuge
Transilien
toward Pontoise, Persan–Beaumont or Luzarches
Transilien
TER Hauts-de-France 20
Dammartin-Juilly-Saint-Mard
toward Laon
TER Hauts-de-France 24Terminus
toward Amiens
TER Hauts-de-France 27
TerminusTER Hauts-de-France 29
Persan-Beaumont
toward Beauvais
RER
La Plaine – Stade de France
toward Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 2 – TGV or Mitry–Claye
toward Robinson or Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse
toward Creil
toward Melun or Malesherbes
Connections to other stations
Preceding station   RER   Following station
Haussmann – Saint-Lazare
Transfer at: Magenta
Rosa-Parks
toward Chelles-Gournay or Tournan
Paris Métro
Transfer at: La Chapelle
toward Nation
Transfer at: Gare du Nord
Transfer at: Gare du Nord
Location
Gare du Nord
Location within Paris
Gare du Nord
Gare du Nord (Île-de-France (region))
Gare du Nord
Gare du Nord (France)
Main facade
New wing
Gare du Nord as seen from the Thalys platform
Panoramic view of the arrival hall
Departure board showing typical destinations
Eurostar, Thalys and TGV trains fill the platforms

The Gare du Nord is the station for trains to Northern France and to international destinations in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The station complex was designed by the French architect Jacques Hittorff[3] and built between 1861 and 1864.

New section with the hall for the RER lines

History

The first Gare du Nord was built by Bridge and Roadway Engineers on behalf of the Chemin de Fer du Nord company, which was managed by Léonce Reynaud, professor of architecture at the École Polytechnique. The station was inaugurated on 14 June 1846, the same year as the launch of the Paris–Amiens–Lille rail link. Since the station was found to be too small in size, it was partially demolished in 1860 to provide space for the current station. The original station's façade was removed and transferred to Lille.

The chairman of the Chemin de Fer du Nord railway company, James Mayer de Rothschild, chose the French architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff to design the current station. Construction lasted from May 1861 to December 1865, but the new station opened for service while still under construction in 1864. The façade was designed around a triumphal arch and used many slabs of stone. The building has the usual U-shape of a terminus station. The main support beam is made out of cast iron. The support pillars inside the station were made at Alston & Gourley's ironworks in Glasgow in the United Kingdom, the only country with a foundry large enough for the task.

The sculptural display represents the principal cities served by the company. Eight of the nine most majestic statues, crowning the building along the cornice line, illustrate destinations outside France, with the ninth figure of Paris in the centre. Fourteen more modest statues representing northern European cities are lower on the façade. The sculptors represented are:

It was originally planned that a monumental avenue would be constructed leading up to the station's façade, cutting through the old street layout. However, this was never built due to a dispute between de Rothschild and Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann during his rebuilding of Paris. One version claims that the lack of a boulevard was due to Haussmann discovering that his wife was having an affair with the Gare du Nord's architect, Jacques Ignace Hittorff, though this story is unlikely, since Hittorff, born in 1792, was seventy-three years old when the station was completed, and died two years later. Whatever the reason, the station has persistently suffered problems with a lack of space and poor access.[4]

To remedy these problems, in 2015 SNCF engaged the architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte to "open the station towards the city". It is intended that the station will undergo a major refurbishment to be completed by 2024, when Paris is to host the Olympic Games. The station will remain open during the renovations. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has also pledged to address the traffic problems in front of the station by reconfiguring its approaches.[4]

Service

Like other Parisian railway stations, the Gare du Nord rapidly became too small to deal with the increase in railway traffic. In 1884, engineers were able to add five supplementary tracks. The interior was completely rebuilt in 1889 and an extension was built on the eastern side to serve suburban rail lines. More expansion work was carried out between the 1930s and the 1960s.

Beginning in 1906 and 1908, the station was served by the Metro Line 4, which crosses Paris from north to south, and the terminus of Metro Line 5, which ran to Étoile through Place d'Italie. In 1942, Line 5 was extended towards the northern suburbs of Pantin and Bobigny, while its south terminus was set to Place d'Italie. Metro Line 2 (station La Chapelle) is linked to the Gare du Nord via a tunnel. One enters the Métro station and, instead of climbing the stairs that lead to the elevated métro line (not all of Line 2 is elevated) descends several flights of stairs, before traversing a long, arched circular hallway to enter the station.

Finally, in 1994, the arrival of Eurostar trains required another reorganisation of the rail tracks:

  • Platforms 1 and 2: Service platforms, not open to the public.
  • Platforms 3 to 6: Terminus of the London Eurostar via the Channel Tunnel. (Access to these trains is from the upper level, reached by an escalator opposite platform 17.)
  • Platforms 7 and 8: Thalys platforms for Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
  • Platforms 9 to 18: TGV North Europe, Main Line trains, and some Picard TER.
  • Platforms 19 to 21: Picard TER.
  • Platforms 30 to 36: Suburban station, Transiliens and Picard TER (Paris-Beauvais line)
  • Platforms 41 to 44 (underground): RER station, lines B and D.
  • 4 Métro Platforms (underground): Lines 4&5

It is also connected to Magenta RER Station (4 platforms, line E) and La Chapelle Métro Station (2 platforms, line 2).

Today, the Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in Europe, with over 700,000 passengers daily. Most of the passengers are commuters travelling in from the northern suburbs of Paris and outlying towns; only 3 per cent of the traffic is accounted for by Eurostar.[4]

There is a further construction project to build a connecting hallway between Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est, which is projected to open around the time when the new LGV Est begins serving the station. When open the Gare du Nord-Gare de l'Est complex (including Magenta & La Chapelle) will have 77 platforms.

Security for the station is provided by the French police, the railways police and private security companies. Due to the position of the station as a gateway to the northern suburbs of Paris, there are some parts of the station where security incidents occur from time to time.[5]

After the 'Additional Protocol to the Sangatte Protocol' was signed by France and the United Kingdom on 29 May 2000, juxtaposed controls were set up in the station. Eurostar passengers travelling to the UK clear exit checks from the Schengen Area (carried out by the French Border Police) as well as UK entry checks (conducted by the UK Border Force) in the station before boarding their train.[6] PARAFE self-service gates are available in the station which eligible passengers (EU, EEA and Swiss citizens aged 12 or above holding biometric passports) can use to clear French exit immigration checks (instead of a staffed counter). ePassport gates have also been installed in the station, which eligible passengers (UK, EU, EEA, Swiss, Australian, Canadian, Japanese, New Zealand, Singaporean, South Korean and United States citizens (as well as other foreign nationals who have applied for the Registered Traveller scheme) aged 12 or over holding biometric passports) can use to clear UK entry immigration instead of a staffed counter.

The Gare du Nord has served as a backdrop in numerous French films, for instance in Les Poupées Russes.

In Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love Linda first meets Fabrice in the Gare du Nord when she's run out of resources and is sitting weeping on her suitcase.

In US movies, both the exterior and the interior of the Gare du Nord are seen in the 2002 film The Bourne Identity with Matt Damon and again in the trilogy's finale, The Bourne Ultimatum, released in August 2007. It was also seen in Ocean's Twelve in 2004,[7] and Mr Bean's Holiday in 2007. The ending of the 2012 movie The Raven by James McTeigue takes place at the station.

Scenes of Gossip Girl's episode "Double Identity" were shot inside the Gare du Nord.[8]

The trio travel from Amsterdam Centraal station to Gare du Nord in the Clint Eastwood film The 15:17 to Paris (film).

Gare du Nord is mentioned in the song "Polaris" by Jimmy Eat World off their album Futures.

Train services

The following services currently call at Paris Nord:

  • High speed services (Eurostar) Paris – London
  • High speed services (Thalys) Paris – Brussels – Amsterdam
  • High speed services (Thalys) Paris – Brussels – Cologne – Essen – Dortmund
  • High speed services (Thalys) Paris – Brussels – Cologne
  • High speed services (TGA) Paris – Lille
  • High speed services (TGV) Paris – Lille – Tourcoing
  • High speed services (TGV) Paris – Lille – Calais
  • High speed services (TGV) Paris – Lille – Calais – Boulogne – Rang-du-Fliers
  • High speed services (TGV) Paris – Lille – Dunkerque
  • High speed services (TGV) Paris – Arras – Béthune – Dunkerque
  • High speed services (TGV) Paris – Arras – Douai – Valenciennes
  • Intercity services (Intercités) Paris – Amiens – Abbeville – Rang-du-Fliers – Boulogne
  • Intercity services (Intercités) Paris – Saint-Quentin – Maubeuge
  • Intercity services (Intercités) Paris – Saint-Quentin – Cambrai
  • Regional services (Transilien) Paris – Saint-Denis – Montsoult-Maffliers – Luzarches
  • Regional services (Transilien) Paris – Saint-Denis – Montsoult-Maffliers – Persan-Beaumont
  • Regional services (Transilien) Paris – Saint-Denis – Ermont-Eaubonne – Persan-Beaumont
  • Regional services (Transilien) Paris – Saint-Denis – Ermont-Eaubonne – Pontoise
  • Regional services (Transilien) Paris – Aulnay-sous-Bois – Mitry-Claye – Crépy-en-Valois
  • Regional services (TER Hauts-de-France) Paris – Crépy-en-Valois – Soissons – Laon
  • Regional services (TER Hauts-de-France) Paris – Creil – Compiègne – Tergnier – Saint-Quentin
  • Regional services (TER Hauts-de-France) Paris – Persan-Beaumont – Beauvais
  • Regional services (TER Hauts-de-France) Paris – Orry-la-Ville – Creil – Saint-Just-en-Chaussée – Breteuil – Amiens

RER

Gare du Nord is well connected to the Paris RER network. Lines B and D call at platforms under the station. Line B serves Charles de Gaulle Airport (Roissy), Mitry – Claye in the north-east of the city and Antony (for Orly Airport), Massy-Palaiseau) (for Massy TGV and Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse in south-west Paris. Line D offers a quick connection between Gare du Nord and Gare de Lyon and many areas of south-east Paris. Line D also operates to northern Paris, to Saint-Denis and Creil.

Both lines B and D serve Stade de France in Saint-Denis.

The RER station is directly connected to Magenta station, which was constructed further underground to the east of the Gare du Nord. It is served by the RER E line that offers a link between the Gare du Nord and Saint-Lazare/Gare Saint-Lazare and to eastern Paris, to Bondy, Chelles and Tournan-en-Brie.

Paris Métro
Main article: Gare du Nord (Paris Métro)
  • Lines 4 and 5, whose following station is Gare de l'Est.
  • There has been a connecting hallway connecting the RER station with La Chapelle on Line 2 since the 1990s.
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See also

Notes and references
  1. "The world's busiest train stations". railwaytechnology.com. 9 August 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2004.
  2. "Fréquentation en gares – Paris Nord". SNCF Open Data. 25 February 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2019. External link in |work= (help)
  3. Cole, Beverly (2011). Trains. Potsdam, Germany: H.F.Ullmann. p. 221. ISBN 978-3-8480-0516-1.
  4. Charles Bremner (27 June 2015). "Grubby Gare du Nord gets £1bn facelift". The Times.
  5. Henry Samuel, Battle of Gare du Nord rocks Paris, the telegraph, 29 March 2007
  6. "Lords Hansard text for 16 March 2001 (210316-05)". Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Lords.
  7. "OCEANS 12 – Production notes – About the production". CinemaReview.com. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
  8. Adalian, Joe; Gordon, Diane (29 July 2010). "Gossip Girl Producers Dish On Chuck's Fate, Filming In Paris and Jenny Humphrey's Return". New York Magazine. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
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