Gare Montparnasse (; Montparnasse station), officially Paris-Montparnasse, one of the six large Paris railway termini, is located in the 14th and 15th arrondissements. The station opened in 1840, was rebuilt in 1852 and relocated in 1969 to a new station just south of the original location – where subsequently the prominent Montparnasse Tower was constructed. It is a central element to the

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...

area. The original station is noted for the Montparnasse derailment, where a

steam train A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

crashed through the station in 1895, an event captured in widely known photographs – and reproduced in full scale in several locations. The station serves intercity TGV trains to the west and southwest of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

including

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

, Rennes and Nantes, and suburban and regional services on the Transilien Paris – Montparnasse routes. There is also a metro station. Gare Montparnasse is the only mainline terminus in Paris not directly connected to the RER system, though the Montparnasse main line is connected to the RER at Versailles-Chantiers and the

LGV Atlantique The LGV Atlantique (French: ''Ligne à Grande Vitesse''; English: Atlantic high-speed line) is a high-speed rail line running from Paris (Gare Montparnasse) to Western France. It opened in 1989–1990 and comprises two stations: Massy TGV statio ...

at Massy Palaiseau.

History

The station opened in 1840 as ''Gare de l'Ouest'', later being renamed. A second station was built between 1848 and 1852. On 25 August 1944, the German military governor of Paris, General von Choltitz, surrendered his garrison to the French General

Philippe Leclerc Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque (22 November 1902 – 28 November 1947) was a Free-French general during the Second World War. He became Marshal of France posthumously in 1952, and is known in France simply as le maréchal ...

at the old station. (see Liberation of Paris). During the 1960s, a newer station integrated into a complex of office buildings was built further down the track. In 1969, the old station was demolished and the Tour Montparnasse built on its site. An extension was built in 1990 to host the TGV Atlantique. Image:Gare Montparnasse Concourse 2009.jpg, Concourse of the station Image:Gare de Paris-Montparnasse Platform 2009.jpg, Platform of the station

1895 derailment

The Gare Montparnasse became famous for the derailment on 22 October 1895, of the Granville–Paris Express, which overran the

buffer stop A buffer stop, bumper, bumping post, bumper block or stopblock (US), is a device to prevent railway vehicles from going past the end of a physical section of track. The design of the buffer stop is dependent, in part, on the kind of couplings ...

. The engine careered across almost of the station concourse, crashed through a thick wall, shot across a terrace and smashed out of the station, plummeting onto the Place de Rennes below, where it stood on its nose. Two of the 131 passengers sustained injuries, along with the fireman and two conductors. The only fatality was a woman on the street below, Marie-Augustine Aguilard, who was temporarily taking over her husband's work duty while he went out to get the newspapers. She was killed by falling masonry. The railway company later paid for her funeral and provided a pension to look after her two children. The accident was caused by a faulty Westinghouse brake and the engine driver, who was trying to make up lost time. A conductor was given a 25-

franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...

fine and the engine driver a 50-franc fine. Replicas of the train crash are recreated outside the Mundo a Vapor ("Steam World") museum chain buildings in Brazil, in the southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, in the city of

Canela Canela may refer to: Places * Canela, Rio Grande do Sul, a town in Brazil * Canela, Chile, a commune in Chile * La Canela, a legendary location in South America * Isla Canela, an island in Andalusia, Spain Other uses * Canela (surname), in ...

.The Trainwreck Industry
, retrieved 4 March 2009

Train services

From Paris Montparnasse train services depart to major French cities such as: Le Mans, Rennes, Saint-Brieuc,

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress * Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria * Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France ** Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Br ...

Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...

, Vannes,

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town ('' commune'') and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in the area of Lorient are attested by the presen ...

, Quimper,

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

, Nantes, Saint-Nazaire,

, Poitiers,

La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. Wi ...

, Angoulême,

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

, Bayonne and Granville. The station is also served by suburban trains heading to the west and south-west of Paris. *High speed services ('' TGV'') Paris – Bordeaux – Dax – Lourdes – Tarbes *High speed services (''TGV'') Paris – Bordeaux – Dax – Bayonne – Biarritz – Hendaye *High speed services (''TGV'') Paris – Bordeaux – Agen – Toulouse *High speed services (''TGV'') Paris – Bordeaux – Arcachon *High speed services (''TGV'') Paris – Tours – Poitiers – Angoulême – Bordeaux *High speed services (''TGV'') Paris – Poitiers – La Rochelle *High speed services (''TGV'') Paris – Tours *High speed services (''TGV'') Paris – Le Mans – Rennes – St Brieuc – Brest *High speed services (''TGV'') Paris – Le Mans – Vannes – Lorient – Quimper *High speed services (''TGV'') Paris – Rennes – St Malo *High speed services (''TGV'') Paris – Le Mans – Rennes *High speed services (''TGV'') Paris – Nantes – St-Nazaire – Le Croisic *High speed services (''TGV'') Paris – Le Mans – Angers – Nantes *Discount High Speed Services ('' Ouigo TGV'') Paris (Vaugirard.Montparnesse Hall 3) - Poitiers - Saint-Pierre-des-Corps- Angoulême - Bordeaux *Discount High Speed Services (''Ouigo TGV'') Paris (Vaugirard.Montparnesse Hall 3) - Le Mans - Laval - Rennes *Regional Services ('' TER Normandie'') Paris (Vaugirard.Montparnesse Hall 3) to Granville with numerous stops *Regional services ('' TER Centre'') Paris – Versailles – Rambouillet – Chartres – Le Mans *Regional services (''

Transilien Transilien () is the brand name given to the commuter rail network serving Île-de-France, the region surrounding and including the city of Paris. The network consists of eight lines: H, J, K, L, N, U, P and R, each operated by SNCF, th ...

'') Paris – Versailles – St-Quentin-en-Yvelines – Rambouillet *Regional services (''Transilien'') Paris – Versailles – Plaisir – Dreux *Regional services (''Transilien'') Paris – Versailles – Plaisir – Mantes-la-Jolie *Regional services (''Transilien'') Paris – Versailles – Plaisir File:Gare Montparnasse, Paris - OSM 2020.svg, Map File:Paris - Orthophotographie - 2018 - Gare de Paris-Montparnasse 01.jpg, Aerial view

Lines serving this station

Adjacent metro station: * Montparnasse – Bienvenüe Nearby station: *

Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named after ...

References

External links