First building 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 ,
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. The expansion shall be facilitated largely by increasing the building's height, as well as by pulling back the outer walls in several places. The work shall build upon the existing philosophy of keeping arriving and departing passengers separated; all mainline departures are to be centralised within a new building alongside the eastern façade. To improve the station's interconnectivity with the rest of the city, the SNCF has reportedly considered the construction of a new eastern façade along the rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis to give direct access to the new departures terminal, as well as a new bus terminal. Various new onsite amenities shall be provisioned across of floorspace, representing a five-fold increase. Amongst the various retailers and commercial operations planned are two restaurants that are to operate on the station's roof, along with a
gym,
tennis court,
putting range, fitness trail along the façade, and in excess of of green space. To improve accessibility throughout, a total of 55 lifts and 105 escalators shall be installed, more than doubling the pre-redevelopment number. Eco-friendly considerations have also been made, conforming with the demanding
BREEAM standards and incorporating features such as of
solar panels. Despite the ambitious scope, great care shall be taken to preserving its historic architecture and appearance, the station having been regarded as a national heritage site in its own right. The project has reportedly been modelled using several other major stations, including
London St Pancras and
New York's
Grand Central Terminal. During June 2019, a city commission opted to initially deny a construction permit associated with the project. Nonetheless, work commenced on the refurbishment during late 2019, and is scheduled to be completed during late 2023. The station will remain open during the renovations despite the increased technical challenge posed by doing so, the cost of closure being judged to be too great. Substantial planning has gone into minimising disruption and maximising passenger comfort throughout the programme. Some portions of the station, such as the relatively recent facilities for Eurostar services, shall remain relatively untouched. In addition to work on the station site itself, SNCF shall be making alterations along the entire northern corridor within this period in association with the redevelopment work. ==Train services==