The Gare du Nord (; ), officially Paris-Nord, is one of the seven large mainline railway station termini in Paris, France, and Europe's busiest railway station. Gare du Nord is the Paris terminal station of the Eurostar network and serves international destinations in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom as well as northern France and the northern outskirts of Paris. Located in the northern part of Paris together with nearby Gare de l'Est in the 10th arrondissement, the Gare du Nord offers connections with several urban transport lines, including Paris Métro, RER and RATP buses.

The current building was constructed between 1861 and 1864 on a design by architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff, on behalf of the Chemin de Fer du Nord company which was headquartered on an adjacent site. It replaced an earlier and smaller terminal which was operational between 1846 and 1860, some of which was reassembled as Lille-Flandres station.

History

First building

thumb|left|First Gare du Nord terminal

The first Gare du Nord was constructed on behalf of the Chemins de fer du Nord company, which was managed by Léonce Reynaud, professor of architecture at the École Polytechnique. During 1843, the engineer Onfroy de Bréville, having been placed in charge of the first section of the company's proposed line between Paris and Amiens, produced a report that considered two different options for the terminal station.

The engineer and architect Francois-Leonce Reynaud was appointed to design the station itself. During the late 1850s, it had become clear that the original Gare du Nord would be far too small to accommodate the demands of a major terminal station, thus it was decided to replace it entirely. The decision to redevelop the station was considerably eased by the expense of doing so being shared between the company and the city. Accordingly, the station building was partially demolished in 1860 to provide space for the current station; the original station's façade was removed and transferred to Lille station (now Lille-Flandres).

Current building

thumb|Main hall

thumb|Departure board showing typical destinations

thumb|Eastern hall serving metro and RER lines, designed by [[Jean-Marie Duthilleul, Étienne Tricaud and Daniel Claris, opened in 2001]]

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 of the new complex was carried out between May 1861 to December 1865; the new station actually opened for service while still under construction during 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.

On the main façade are allegorical sculptures that represent the principal cities served by the company at the time of construction. At the top stands Paris sculpted by Pierre-Jules Cavelier, surrounded by eight international destinations: from west to east (left to right), Frankfurt (by Gabriel Thomas), Amsterdam (by Charles Gumery), Warsaw and Brussels (by François Jouffroy), London and Vienna (by Jean-Louis Jaley), Berlin (by Jean-Joseph Perraud), and Cologne (by Mathurin Moreau). Lower down are the destinations in France, also from west to east: Boulogne and Compiegne by Cavelier, Saint-Quentin and Cambrai by Auguste Ottin, Beauvais and Lille by Charles-François Lebœuf, Amiens and Rouen by Eugène-Louis Lequesne, Arras and Laon by Théodore-Charles Gruyère, Calais and Valenciennes by Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire, and Douai and Dunkirk by Gustave Crauck.

It was originally planned that a monumental avenue would be constructed leading up to the station's façade, cutting through the old street layout. Between 1838 and 1859, around a dozen separate proposals to redevelop the streets around Gare du Nord were tabled. According to the railway historian Micheline Nilsen, the decision not to proceed with the redevelopment has been typically attributed to Haussmann and his personal displeasure that the city would have to bear such great expense on behalf of the Gare du Nord, and that Haussmann's overall attitude led to a pronounced understatement of the railways. Be that as it may, the station has persistently suffered problems with a lack of space and poor access. During 1884, engineers were able to install five supplementary tracks. During 1889, the station's interior was completely rebuilt, while an extension was constructed along its eastern side to serve the suburban rail lines. Further rounds of expansion work were 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 by a long, arched circular underground passageway.

During 1994, the arrival of high speed Eurostar international services required another reorganisation of the rail tracks:

  • Tracks 1 and 2: Service platforms, not open to the public.
  • Tracks 3 to 6: Eurostar trains to/from London. Access to these trains is from the upper level after border controls.
  • Tracks 7 and 8: Eurostar trains to/from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
  • Tracks 9 to 21: TGV and TER Hauts-de-France
  • Tracks 30 to 36 (Suburban station extension): Transilien Lines H and K
  • Tracks 41 and 44 (underground, level -3): RER D
  • Tracks 42 and 43 (underground, level -3): RER B

It is also connected to the Gare du Nord Métro station (Line 4 and Line 5, 2 platforms), La Chapelle Métro station (Line 2, 2 platforms) and Magenta station (RER E, 4 platforms).

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 and French Customs) as well as UK entry checks (conducted by the UK Border Force) in the station before boarding their train. 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.

By 2015, the Gare du Nord was reportedly the busiest railway station in Europe, handling in excess of 700,000 passengers during a typical day. Most of these passengers are commuters travelling in from the northern suburbs of Paris and outlying towns; only 3 per cent of the traffic has been attributed to Eurostar's international services. 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 National 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.

Late 2010s refurbishment project

The SNCF has long sought to improve the station to better handle traffic, particularly following the expansion of high speed rail services during the 1990s and 2000s accompanied by rising passenger numbers.

The changes to the Gare du Nord shall be substantial, expanding its footprint to roughly two and a half times its pre-refurbishment footprint, turning it into the largest railway station in Europe. and Mr Bean's Holiday in 2007. The ending of the 2012 movie The Raven by James McTeigue takes place at the station.

In Syrian author Zaher Omareen's short story "The Beginner's Guide to Smuggling," the Gare du Nord is the station the protagonist uses in his travels through Paris.

Scenes of Gossip Girl episode "Double Identity" were shot inside the Gare du Nord.

See also

  • List of busiest railway stations in France
  • List of Paris railway stations
  • List of stations of the Paris RER
  • List of stations of the Paris Métro
  • List of works by Henri Chapu Sculptor of statue representing Beauvais

References

Citations

Bibliography

  • Nilsen, Micheline. "Railways and the Western European Capitals: Studies of Implantation in London, Paris, Berlin, and Brussels." Springer, 2008. .
  • Gare du Nord.fr Information on visiting Gare du Nord
  • Images of Gare du Nord
  • Gare du Nord Photo Tour |Paris By Train
  • Gare du Nord shops and general info about the station
  • High-resolution 360° Panorama of Gare du Nord |Art Atlas