La Défense station


La Défense station is a station of the Transilien suburban rail lines, RER commuter rail network, Paris Métro, as well as a stop of the Île-de-France tram network. In the future, Paris Metro Line 15 of Grand Paris Express will pass through here, making it a huge railway hub. It is underneath the Grande Arche building in La Défense, the business district just west of Paris. The station is the western terminus of Métro Line 1 and connects the RER A line to the Métro Line 1 station since 1992, the Line 2 tramway since 1994 and SNCF train station. It is also attached to a major shopping centre. There are over 25 million entries and exits each year. A temporary special SNCF service began in to serve the newly-built Centre of New Industries and Technologies ; the RER entered service on. The RER E station built under the CNIT opened on 6 May 2024.
Highlights on the surface nearby include the monumental Grande Arche, skyscrapers that host the headquarters of important French and foreign companies, and works of urban art such as Le Pouce by César Baldaccini. From the central esplanade the Arc de Triomphe can be seen further down the Axe historique. Until May 2004, this part of La Défense hosted an information centre of the European Union managed by the European Parliament. Like the district it serves, the station takes its name from the 19th-century statue La Défense de Paris, commemorating the Franco-Prussian War.

Passenger services

Access

The station is built around the Cœur Transport, a multimodal hub containing the RER A station, the Transilien station, the station of line 1 of the Paris metro, the station of the T2 tramway and a bus station. This centre has a large passenger hall, with a Transilien SNCF ticket office, numerous RATP ticket offices, machines for the purchase of long-distance tickets and others for the purchase of Île-de-France tickets. Many shops are located there. This room is directly connected to the Les Quatre Temps shopping center and the Centre of New Industries and Technologies.
While most of the accesses lead to the passenger hall, there are other direct accesses. An exit located on Place Carpeaux leads directly to the tram station. The so-called column room access provides direct access to the Transilien station.
The RER E station has three external accesses. From the forecourt of the Grande Arche, in the CNIT and on Avenue Gambetta in Courbevoie. It is connected from its mezzanine to the Cœur Transport via the CNIT. Direct access is also available to the RER A station and to the Transilien/tramway station thanks to two separate underground corridors. Lifts allow access to the various stations for people with reduced mobility.
Internet access via Wi-Fi is available throughout the station.

Station layout

Other connections

There are four platforms in the Transilien station :
In the morning:
  • Platforms 1 and 3 are used for PSL Group III lines to Paris
  • Platform 2 is used for PSL Group III lines to Versailles Rive Droite / St Nom la Breteche – Forêt de Marly
  • Platform 4 is used for La Défense – La Verrière line
In the afternoon:
The RATP bus station has a particularity: passengers wait in a long hall in front of automatic doors that open when the buses arrive. The bus station and the Jules-Verne Terminal are served by :
  • lines 73, 141, 144, 159, 174, 178, 258, 275, 276, 278 and 360 of the RATP bus network ;
  • lines A14 Bonnières, A14 Mantes, 7825 and 72 of the Mantois bus network ;
  • the A14 Les Mureaux and A14 Verneuil lines of the Poissy - Les Mureaux bus network ;
  • the A14 Chambourcy line of the Saint-Germain Boucles de Seine bus network ;
  • the N24 line of the Noctilien network.
Since May 2024, "aerobus" shuttles have been in service to reach Paris-Beauvais airport

In popular culture

Buffet froid, the film, begins at La Défense station.