The RER C section of the station dates back to 1900, when it opened as the Pont Saint-Michel station on the extension of the
Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans from the
Gare d'Austerlitz to a new terminus at the
Gare d'Orsay. The Pont Saint-Michel station was built under the quays of the
Seine, almost at river level, and its constrained location, with narrow and low platforms and
reverse curves, affects operations to this day. Originally the platforms were lit by openings in the river bank, but these were filled in after the station was inundated during the
Seine floods of 1910. In September 1979, a tunnel was constructed to link the Gare d'Orsay (now the
Musée d'Orsay) to
Invalides thus creating a cross-city line initially called the
Transversal Rive Gauche. At the same time, the Pont Saint-Michel station was slightly widened. In May 1980, the Transversal Rive Gauche became the core part of the new RER C. The
RER B passed under Saint-Michel starting December 1977, but the interchange was delayed by the location under the quays and the continued operation of the
Z 23000 trains on the line: the trains had to climb a 4.08% gradient from to
Châtelet–Les Halles, and could only do that without stopping at Saint-Michel. The RER B platforms finally opened in February 1988, one year after the withdrawal of the Z 23000, and the station was renamed to Saint-Michel–Notre-Dame. At the same time,
Cluny–La Sorbonne station on the metro, which had closed in 1939, was reopened to connect with the new RER station and give access to
Boulevard Saint-Germain. On 25 July 1995, as part of a
campaign of terror bombings conducted by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria, the station
was the target of an attack, with a gas bottle exploding near one of the line B platforms, killing eight and wounding 100 people critically. This attack would mark the first of many in 1995 and is commemorated with a discrete memorial inside the platform. In August 2022, the line C platforms were closed for modernisation. Originally intended to be complete by December of the same year, the platforms eventually reopened in April 2023. The principal improvement was the reinstatement of
natural lighting by replacing the original openings, closed in 1910, with 28 large windows that are designed to withstand flooding. Other improvements were the provision of
improved ventilation and
escalator access. == Gallery ==