Ligne de Sceaux

Sceaux Line
The station at Place Denfert-Rochereau, at the time when it was the terminus of the line. Designed in the days of the broad-gauge track of the Arnoux system, the curved shape of the buildings allowed trains to serve the terminus by turning along the interior façade.
Overview
Native nameFrench
Owner
LocaleSouthern suburbs of Paris
Termini
Service
Operator(s)RATP
History
Opened1846–1867
Technical
Number of tracks2
Track gauge1,435 mm (4 ft 8+12 in) standard gauge
Old gauge1,750 mm (5 ft 8+78 in) (standardised in 1893)
Electrification1500 V DC
Route map

km
Opened
1.4
Luxembourg
1893
0.7
Port-Royal
1893
0.0
Paris-D'Enfer
now Denfert-Rochereau
1846
former D'Enfer loop
1.5
Sceaux-Ceinture now Cité Universitaire ; Petite Ceinture
1891
1.55
Gentilly Tunnel
1935
2.0
1935
2.1
Gentilly
1891
3.2
Laplace
1891
4.1
Arcueil–Cachan
1846
5.2
Bagneux
1930
6.3
6.8
Bourg-la-Reine
1846
8.0
Sceaux
1893
8.8
Fontenay
now Fontenay-aux-Roses
1846
10.2
Sceaux-Robinson
now Robinson
1846
8.0
La Croix de Berny
1854
8.8
Antony
1854
11.9
from Juvisy via Grande Ceinture
12.0
Massy–Verrières
1854
13.5
Massy
now Massy-Palaiseau
1852
14.4
to Chartres via Limours-État and Gallardon-Pont
1930
14.8
Palaiseau
to Versailles via Grande Ceinture
1854
16.1
Palaiseau–Villebon
1854
18.1
Lozère
1854
19.5
Le Guichet
1854
20.3
Les Planches
1852
20.7
Orsay-Ville
1854
22.0
Bures-sur-Yvette
1891
24.2
Gif-sur-Yvette
1867
27.1
Courcelle-sur-Yvette
1867
29.3
Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse
1867
29.4
Section abandoned in 1939
34.3
Boullay-les-Troux
1867
High point at 176 m
1867
33.5
Limours-État
to Massy and to Chartres via Gallardon-Pont
1922
37.8
Limours P.-O.
1867
Source: French railway atlas[1]

The Ligne de Sceaux (Sceaux Line) was a railway line in France running from Paris, which initially linked the Place Denfert-Rochereau (then called the Place d'Enfer, in Paris, to the town of Sceaux.

The line originally opened in 1846 as a broad gauge line to demonstrate the Arnoux system and was extended to the south to Sceaux. A branch, now the main line, was built to Orsay and extended to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse and then to Limours. In the latter configuration, it is also called the Paris-Luxembourg–Limours line (line 552000 of the national rail network) by SNCF Réseau.[2]

With a capital of 3 million francs, it was one of five companies placed under sequestration by the State during the Crash of 1847,[3] along with the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans on 4 April 1848, the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Bordeaux à La Teste on 30 October 1848 and the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Marseille à Avignon on 21 November 1848. Similarly, the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Lyon was nationalised in 1848.[4]

In 1895, it was extended north into Paris to Luxembourg station. In 1937, it was transferred by the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans to the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris (CMP) after thorough modernisation. The commissioning of electric railcars suitable for the line, the Z railcars, and the redevelopment of the infrastructure with high platforms and high-performance signalling made it a core section of a future regional metro, enabling it to double its traffic in less than a year. The section from Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse to Limours was abandoned in 1939.

After a period of particularly high traffic during the Second World War and the following years, the 40 km (25 mi) long line was integrated into the Réseau Express Régional (Regional Express Network, RER) in 1977. It now constitutes the two southern branches of line B of the RER south of the Gare du Nord: branch B2 to Robinson and branch B4 to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse.

  1. ^ Atlas ferroviaire de la France, Tome 1 Nord [French railway atlas, volume 1 North)]. Köln: Schweers + Wall. 2015. pp. 30, 31A, 31B. ISBN 978-3-89494-143-7.
  2. ^ "Lignes par statut: Ligne de Paris-Luxembourg à Limours (code ligne : 552000)" (in French). SNCF Réseau. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  3. ^ de Laveleye, A. (1860). "Histoire financière des chemins de fer Français" (in French). p. 28. Retrieved 16 August 2021 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Joanne, Adolphe Laurent (1859). "Atlas historique et statistique des chemins de fer français" (in French). Éditions Louis Hachette. p. 6. Retrieved 16 August 2021 – via Google Books.