The Gare de Lyon (Lyon Station), officially Paris-Gare-de-Lyon, is one of the six large mainline railway station termini in Paris, France. It handles about 90,000,000 passengers every year, making it the third busiest station of France and one of the busiest of Europe. It is the northern terminus of the Paris-Marseille railway. It is named after the city of Lyon, a stop for many long-distance trains departing here, most en route to the south of France. The station is located in the XIIe arrondissement, on the north bank of the river Seine, in the east of Paris.
The station is served by high-speed TGV trains to south and eastern France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Spain. The station also hosts regional trains and the RER and also the Gare de Lyon metro station. Main line trains depart from 32 platforms in two distinct halls: Hall 1, which is the older train shed, contains tracks labelled with letters from A to N, while the modern addition of Hall 2 contains tracks which are numbered from 5 to 23. There are a further 4 platforms for the RER underneath the main lines.
Video Gare de Lyon
History
The station was built for the World Exposition of 1900. On multiple levels, it is considered a classic example of the architecture of its time. Most notable is the large clock tower atop one corner of the station, similar in style to the clock tower of the United Kingdom Houses of Parliament, home to Big Ben.
The station houses the Le Train Bleu restaurant, which has served drinks and meals to travellers and other guests since 1901 in an ornately decorated setting.
On 27 June 1988, in the Gare de Lyon train accident, a runaway train crashed into a stationary rush-hour train, killing 56 people and injuring a further 55.
Maps Gare de Lyon
Train services
From Gare de Lyon train services depart to major French cities such as: Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Montpellier, Perpignan, Dijon, Besançon, Mulhouse, Grenoble and a number of destinations in the Alps.
International services operate to Italy: Turin, Milan and Venice, Switzerland: Geneva, Zurich, Bern, Interlaken, Lausanne and Brig, Germany Freiburg im Breisgau and Spain: Barcelona.
The following services currently call at Gare de Lyon:
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Lyon
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Avignon - Aix-en-Provence - Marseille
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Avignon - Aix-en-Provence - Cannes - Antibes - Nice
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Lyon - Montpellier - Narbonne - Perpignan
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Lyon - Montpellier - Narbonne - Perpignan - Figueres Vilafant - Girona - Barcelona
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Grenoble
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Bellegarde - Geneva
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Bellegarde - Annemasse - Evian-les-Bains
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Chambéry - Aix-les-Bains - Annecy
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Chambéry - Turin - Milan
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Belfort - Mulhouse - Basel - Zurich
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Dijon - Basel - Bern - Interlaken
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Dijon - Lausanne (- Brig)
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Dijon - Neuchâtel
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Dijon - Besançon - Belfort - Mulhouse - Freiburg im Breisgau
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Dijon - Besançon - Belfort - Mulhouse
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Dijon - Besançon-Viotte
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Dijon - Chalon-sur-Saône
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Lyon - Saint-Étienne
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Valence - Avignon - Miramas
- High speed services (TGV) Paris - Chambéry - Albertville - Bourg-Saint-Maurice (Winter)
- Night train (Thello) Paris - Milan - Verona - Padua - Venice
- Regional services Paris - Montereau - Sens - Laroche-Migennes
- Regional services (Transilien) Paris - Melun - Moret - Nemours - Montargis
- Paris RER services A Saint-Germain-en-Laye - Nanterre-Universite - La Defense - Gare de Lyon - Vincennes - Boissy-Saint-Leger
- Paris RER services A Cergy le Haut - Conflans - Sartrouville - La Defense - Gare de Lyon - Vincennes - Val-de-Fontenay - Marne-la-Vallee (Disneyland)
- Paris RER services A Poissy - Sartrouville - La Defense - Gare de Lyon - Vincennes - Val-de-Fontenay - Marne-la-Vallee (Disneyland)
- Paris RER services D Creil - Orry-la-Ville - Goussainville - Saint Denis - Gare du Nord - Gare de Lyon - Combs-la-Ville - Melun
- Paris RER services D Goussainville - Saint Denis - Gare du Nord - Gare de Lyon - Juvisy - Ris - Corbeil
- Paris RER services D Châtelet - Gare de Lyon - Juvisy - Grigny - Corbeil - Malesherbes
- Paris RER services D Gare de Lyon - Juvisy - Grigny - Corbeil - Melun
Travelling between the Gare de Lyon and other Paris main line stations
For the Gare du Nord, take RER Line D towards Orry-la-Ville-Coye.
For the Gare de l'Est, either walk to nearby Quai de la Rapée Métro station for Line 5 (going north to Bobigny - Pablo Picasso), or take Line 1 from Lyon north to Bastille station and change there to Line 5. This is also another way to reach the Gare du Nord.
For Gare Saint-Lazare, take Métro Line 14.
For Gare Montparnasse, catch a 91 bus, which goes there directly. Or take the Métro Line 14 to Châtelet and then change for Line 4 to Montparnasse-Bienvenüe (although Châtelet is an extremely large and complex station, the connection between those two lines is very short).
For Gare d'Austerlitz the 5-10mn walk south across Pont Charles de Gaulle or Pont d'Austerlitz is quickest.
Gare de Lyon in films
The station has appeared in the following films :
- 1972 : Travels with My Aunt (film), directed by George Cukor
- 2005 : The Mystery of the Blue Train, an Hercule Poirot mystery novel by Agatha Christie (and its TV adaptation)
- 2007 : Mr. Bean's Holiday, directed by Steve Bendelack
- 2010 : The Tourist, directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
See also
- List of stations of the Paris RER
- List of stations of the Paris Métro
- Gare de Lyon rail accident
References
External links
- Intercity and TGV schedules from SNCF
- The Mystery of the Blue Train (2005) on IMDb
Source of the article : Wikipedia