The area around the Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est railway stations - The district around the Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est railway stations – Prospective diagnosis – Urban dynamics and the evolution of the railway sidings

This study was undertaken as part of the partnership programme between the Paris Agency of Urbanism and Paris City Council, in particular the Department of Urbanism. Its aim is to improve understanding of how the neighbourhoods around the Gare du Nord and the Gare de l’Est railway stations are changing, given that with the successive arrivals of the TGV, EUROSTAR and THALYS they have become two of the biggest stations in Europe and the biggest points of entry from eastern and northern Europe into Paris.

The areas around the Gare du Nord and the Gare de l’Est have been profoundly affected by the railway system.

In spite of their many continuing problems they evoke the history of Paris in all the richness of its landscapes and its cultural diversity.

A lot of people have talked about the necessity of making these districts “visible”, assuming that the dynamic of the “stations” should find an echo in their “urban image”.

The five levers highlighted in the study - identity, public space and network systems, the flexibility of the urban fabric, economic typology and the real estate potential created by the railway lines - are tools the study would like to make available to future projects.

The idea behind this study is to put forward a proposal for the future of these richly complex districts, improving the intrinsic diversity of Paris and which could be of use to metropolitan construction projects such as the development of Paris Nord-Est and Plaine Commune.

This study is the 3rd instalment of a larger study of railway station neighbourhoods in Paris. The following have already been published:

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