Gare du Nord

[ v; t; e; ] Eurostar services
	Legend
	Times shown are fastest timetabled journey from St Pancras.

Gare du Nord
Terminus
Gare du Nord ; Terminus
	Entrance
Station statistics
Address	112 Rue de Maubeuge,; 75010 Paris
Coordinates	48°52′51″N 2°21′19″E / 48.880931°N 2.355323°ECoordinates: 48°52′51″N 2°21′19″E / 48.880931°N 2.355323°E
Line(s)	Paris–Lille railway
Platforms	36 (two not in service)
Other information
Opened	1864
Rebuilt	1889 (expanded 1930s-1960s)
Electrified	25 kV 50 Hz; 1.5 kV DC (Underground RER Lines)
Owned by	SNCF
Traffic
Passengers ()	190 million
Services
Eurostar; Thalys; TGV; Intercités; TER Picardie; RER; Transilien

Gare du Nord view from upstairs.

Gare du Nord as seen from the Thalys platform.

Detail of the main entrance of the Gare du Nord.

Panoramic view of the arrival hall.

Departure board showing typical destinations.

Eurostar, Thalys and TGV trains fill the platforms

The new part with the hall for the RER lines.

Passport stamp by French Border Police

Passport stamp by the UK Border Agency

Paris Nord (or Gare du Nord, "North Station", pronounced: [ɡaʁ dy nɔːʁ]) is one of the six large terminus stations of the SNCF mainline network for Paris, France. It offers connections with several urban transportation lines, including Paris Métro, RER and Buses. By the number of travelers, at around 190 million per year, it is the busiest railway station in Europe^[1] and the busiest in the world outside Japan.^[2]

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 and built between 1861 and 1864. It is situated in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.

History[edit]

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 center. Fourteen more modest statues representing northern French cities are lower on the façade. The sculptors represented are:

London and Vienna by Jean-Louis Jaley
Brussels and Warsaw by François Jouffroy
Amsterdam by Charles Gumery
Frankfurt by Gabriel Thomas
Berlin by Jean-Joseph Perraud
Cologne by Mathurin Moreau
Paris, Boulogne and Compiegne by Pierre-Jules Cavelier
Arras and Laon by Théodore-Charles Gruyère
Lille and Beauvais by Charles-François Lebœuf
Valenciennes and Calais by Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire
Rouen and Amiens by Eugène-Louis Lequesne
Douai and Dunkirk by Gustave Crauck
Cambrai and Saint-Quentin by Auguste Ottin

In 1927 an American multi-millionairess named Alice de Janzé shot herself and her British lover, Raymund de Trafford, on board a train at the Gare du Nord. The two survived their injuries.^[3]

Service[edit]

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 an underground 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.
Platforms 7 and 8: Thalys platforms for Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
Platforms 9 to 18: TGV North, 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)

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[4]

In popular culture[edit]

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

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,^[5] 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.^[6]

It is also mentioned in "Polaris" by Jimmy Eat World off their album Futures. In addition, the station was featured in the video for the song "Home" by Blake Shelton. One of Poésie Noire songs is called "Gare du Nord".

The station is also mentioned in The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, as well as in The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

Train services[edit]

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
High speed services (Thalys) Paris - Brussels - Ostend
High speed services (Thalys) Paris - Charleroi - Namur - Liège
High speed services (Thalys) Paris - Brussels - Cologne
High speed services (TGV) 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 - St-Quentin - Maubeuge
Intercity services (Intercités) Paris - St-Quentin - Cambrai
Regional services (Transilien) Paris - St-Denis - Montsoult-Maffliers - Luzarches
Regional services (Transilien) Paris - St-Denis - Montsoult-Maffliers - Persan-Beaumont
Regional services (Transilien) Paris - St-Denis - Ermont-Eaubonne - Persan-Beaumont
Regional services (Transilien) Paris - St-Denis - Ermont-Eaubonne - Pontoise
Regional services (Transilien) Paris - Aulnay-sous-Bois - Mitry-Claye - Crépy-en-Valois
Regional services (TER Picardie) Paris - Crépy-en-Valois - Soissons - Laon
Regional services (TER Picardie) Paris - Creil - Compeigne - Tergnier - St-Quentin
Regional services (TER Picardie) Paris - Persan-Beaumont - Beauvais
Regional services (TER Picardie) Paris - Orry-la-Ville - Creil - St-Just-en-Chaussee - Breteuil - Amiens
Regional services (TER Picardie) Paris - Orry-la-Ville - Creil - Compeigne

Preceding station	SNCF	Following station
Lille Flandres toward Lille-Flandres or Tourcoing	TGV	Terminus
Lille Europe toward Calais	TGV	Terminus
Lille Europe toward Boulogne or Rang-du-Fliers	TGV	Terminus
Arras toward Dunkerque	TGV	Terminus
Arras toward Valenciennes	TGV	Terminus
Terminus	Intercités	Creil toward Boulogne-Ville
Terminus	Intercités	Creil toward Cambrai or Maubeuge
Terminus	Transilien	Saint-Denis toward Pontoise, Persan-Beaumont or Luzarches
Terminus	Transilien	Aulnay-sous-Bois toward Crépy-en-Valois
Terminus	TER Picardie 6	Mitry-Claye toward Laon
Creil toward Busigny	TER Picardie 12	Terminus
Terminus	TER Picardie 19	Persan-Beaumont toward Beauvais
Orry-la-Ville-Coye toward Amiens	TER Picardie 22	Terminus
Preceding station	Thalys	Following station
Brussels-South toward Amsterdam Centraal	Thalys	Terminus
Brussels-South toward Essen Hbf	Thalys	Terminus
Brussels-South toward Oostende	Thalys	Terminus
Brussels-South toward Brussels National Airport	Thalys	Terminus
Mons toward Liège-Guillemins	Thalys	Terminus
Preceding station	Eurostar	Following station
Lille toward London St Pancras	Eurostar	Terminus

RER[edit]

(See ^[7])

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.

Preceding station		RER		Following station
La Plaine – Stade de France toward Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 2 – TGV or Mitry - Claye				Châtelet – Les Halles toward Robinson or Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse
Stade de France - Saint-Denis toward				Châtelet – Les Halles toward Melun or Malesherbes
Haussmann – Saint-Lazare Terminus				Pantin toward Chelles-Gournay or Tournan

Paris Métro[edit]

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.