Business travellers and, above all, leisure passengers who have decided to take advantage of the 1er May to travel by TGV via Gare de Lyon may be in for a bit of a disappointment. SNCF Réseau has just announced the closure of the Paris station for this traditionally busy weekend. No Transilien or TGV trains are scheduled to depart or arrive between 8pm on Thursday 30 April and 2pm on 3 May. For high-speed trains, this includes SNCF and Trenitalia services to the Mediterranean, SNCF services to Spain, Lyria services to Switzerland and, once again, SNCF's TGV Inoui and Trenitalia's Frecciarossa services to Italy. However, the SNCF hopes to maintain 60% of its traffic by switching its trains to Paris-Montparnasse, Paris-Est, Paris CDG-TGV and Marne-la-Vallée Chessy stations, as well as Paris Pont de Rungis and Versailles Chantiers. Paris-Bercy station will also not be served by the SNCF. The number of Intercités trains on the Paris-Clermont-Ferrand line will be particularly reduced, with departures and arrivals at Paris-Austerlitz station.
Some trains transferred to other Paris and Ile-de-France stations
SNCF Réseau is justifying this traffic closure by the need to carry out major rail works, including the modernisation of two signal boxes, the commissioning of new tracks linked to the SNCF's future maintenance technicentre, and the preparation of other works scheduled for this summer.
By opting for an extended weekend rather than a weekday closure, SNCF has chosen not to penalise everyday travellers, especially those on Lines R and RER D. This technological modernisation and the renovation of switches and tracks are deemed necessary because " this rail route is used by 300 million passengers every year "SNCF Réseau, which began its programme to modernise operations from this station in 2017, points out.
A station under construction until 2027
For its part, SNCF Gares & Connexion last year initiated 4 years of work on the station itself. While its historic façade has now disappeared under the scaffolding, work is also planned to recast the building on the rue de Bercy side to make it easier to access in a modern, safe environment, and to improve connections with the RER and metro.
