Émerainville-Pontault-Combault: station history
Served by: RER E.
Did you know?
A station in Seine-et-Marne put into service on 9 February 1857, when the Nogent - Le Perreux to Nangis section opened, by the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Est, and run today by the SNCF. The second track opened on 23 April 1857. The station also bears the name of Pontault-Combault, a commune whose territory extends south and west of the passenger building. It is at 109 metres above sea level, with an entrance on place Auribault. On 14 December 2003 the line was attached to RER E, which runs to Haussmann - Saint-Lazare station; the platforms went from 0.55 to 0.92 metres and real-time information screens were installed.
Anecdote
From 1883 to 1959 the station was the origin of a private 10-kilometre standard-gauge branch serving the Menier chocolate factory at Noisiel. It had five level crossings and three 030T steam engines, two supplied by the Graffenstaden works (1881 and 1884) and one by La Meuse (1903); speed was limited to 20 km/h by day and 10 km/h at night. The Menier family's saloon car sometimes ran on the line, coupled to a regular Compagnie de l'Est train. Reorganised later, with a marshalling yard at Émerainville, the branch was abandoned in 2005.
Around Émerainville-Pontault-Combault
- Château de Combault (hôtel de ville), 2100 m away — The former château of a Napoleonic marshal, now the town hall, which kept the gates from Saint-Cloud.
- Église Saint-Denis, 2800 m away — It keeps a bell, Marie, christened in 1558, and a 13th-century Gothic choir.
- Église Saint-Éloi d'Émerainville, 1300 m away — Its statue of Saint Eligius is listed as a historic monument; it also holds an armchair that belonged to Madame Élisabeth, sister of Louis XVI.