Trains at the Gare du Nord

Here are some trains I saw at the Gare du Nord in Paris, France. Most of the platforms are accessible without any tickets or security checks, which I found a bit odd. The Eurostar platforms are glassed off and you must go through significant security to gain access to the trains. I'll get into that in another post. The local RER trains require a ticket to access those platforms.

SNCF is the French state railway system. They operate numerous trains, including the TGV high-speed long distance train and local trains under the banner of SNCF Proximités. One of the local train brands is the TER, for Transport Express Régional. I spotted a couple of TER trainsets at the Gare du Nord.


These are multiple-unit trains made by Bombardier. I can't figure out if these are diesel or electric or both. TER operates several different types. I remember seeing a TER train flashing by at one of the castles we were visiting (Chenonceau).


This ugly duckling was at the head of a train. SNCF 116043 is a "class BB 16000" electric locomotive. It operates on 25 kV power, and 62 of these were built between 1958 and 1963. This locomotive has more tractive effort than a GP38-2.


I think this was another locomotive-hauled train. I did not walk down any of the platforms so I don't know what was at the other end. Maybe another "ugly duckling"?


Of course, there were TGV trains in the Gare du Nord as well. This one is a little different than the TGV sets I showed at the Gare de l'Est.


Set 3226 is a British Rail Class 373 train. It was built by GEC-Alsthom for Channel Tunnel operation between London, Paris and Brussels and the series is called "Three Capitals". I don't believe these SNCF-owned trainsets actually go through the Channel Tunnel any more.

Here's a Thalys high-speed train.


Extra: The VIA Rail Renaissance cars were originally intended for the "Nightstar" cross-channel service. The intention of Nightstar was to provide sleeper service between Paris or Brussels and English cities north of London. For several reasons, mostly due to the privatization of Britain's rail network and the cancellation of regional Eurostar services, they never operated and were put in storage before being purchased by VIA Rail.

The Gare du Nord

As I mentioned, I was in France last month. I already blogged about the Gare de l'Est in Paris and now it's time to talk about the Gare du Nord.

The Gare du Nord ("north station") is quite large and serves local trains, long-distance trains to the north of France, as well as international trains to Belgium, the Netherlands, northern Germany, and of course the UK using Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel (incorrectly known as the "Chunnel").

The front of the station is quite imposing, with the big columns and statues.


Inside it is big and airy. It was quite busy all three times I was in the station, with many people standing around looking at the arrivals or departures boards, or shopping at the various vendors. The arrivals and departures boards are quite imposing.


One evening I took a walk through and shot some of the trains waiting at the platforms. Here's SNCF TGV trainsets 13 and 81 waiting at the platforms. Both sets are TGV Sud-Est types originally built for Paris-Lyons service. They carry a maximum of 345 passengers and most are capable of 300 km/hr travel on the dedicated TGV tracks, or 200 km/hr on normal track (lignes classiques).


I also saw a couple of Thalys trainsets, including set 4533 here. These are TGV Réseau sets dedicated to Thalys service between Paris and Amsterdam. You may remember I saw a Thalys train in Amsterdam back in 2008.


I have some more train photos from the Gare du Nord from my other visit and I will post them next.

The Gare de l'Est

You may have noticed that I haven't posted much in the past few weeks. Well, there are two reasons, the most important of which was that my wife and I were in Europe on vacation for our 10th wedding anniversary. We were in Paris (and then Normandy) and then in London. So blogging was not high on my priority list!

I did see a few trains while I was there, although railfanning was also not high on my priority list. In Paris we were staying half a block south of the Gare de l'Est ("east station"). This station serves high-speed trains heading east as well as local trains and is on several subway lines. We chose to stay near this station because of the easy connections to the subway ("Metro" as it is called).

One evening I took a quick walk through the station, shooting the trains waiting at the platforms, and then walked around the outside a bit. There were TGV trainsets there and a few local trains. Note that most passenger trains in France seem to be electric, not diesel-electric, so there is a lot of caternary wire around.

SNCF 17076 is a "class BB 17000" running on 25 kV AC power. I'm assuming the BB means two trucks, two powered axles on each truck. These engines are about as old as I am and are nicknamed "danseuses" (dancers).

Some of the local trains are called RER, which stands for Réseau Express Régional (Regional Express Network). They are electric trains and are basically the same as subway trains but do run outside and the stops are much farther apart than subway trains. Also the RER trains are powered by overhead caternary wire whereas the subways use a third rail for power.

I walked out to the back of the station to see the train platforms. It's hard to see the trains because of the roofs. Here we see two TGV tracks, with the left track having two TGV trainsets connected together and the right track having a single TGV trainset. Note that the TGV sets have an engine at each end so there is no need to turn them.


The TGV pictured at the top of this post is one of the TGV Réseau trainsets and would be the train on the left in the photo just above. This particular trainset is dual-voltage (25 kV AC and 1500 V DC). Other trainsets are triple-voltage, adding 3 kV DC for use in Belgium and Italy. They have a capacity of 377 seats and a top speed of 300 km/hr. I saw a couple of TGV trains running while I was driving on the highway and they easily outpaced my 130 km/hr (legal top speed), probably doing at least 200 km/hr on the stretches I saw.

The area behind the platforms is nice and airy, but covered with lots of advertising signs.


I took a shot of the arrivals and departures board.


After this, I walked up to the Gare du Nord, about 10 minutes away. The Gare du Nord handles TGV and local trains as well as the Eurostar "chunnel" trains. Another post.