Gif-sur-Yvette: station history
Served by: RER B.
Did you know?
An Essonne station run by the RATP, served by RER line B, on the Sceaux line. Its millstone building dates from the extension of the Sceaux line from Orsay to Limours. With Courcelle-sur-Yvette, it is one of the commune's two stations, and it serves the town centre. Lifts were installed in 2008-2009 to make it accessible to people with reduced mobility.
Anecdote
When the Sceaux line was electrified, in 1936-1938, a substation called « des Coudrayes » was built right next to the station, on the Paris side. It was the only one on the Massy - Palaiseau to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse section. Fed with 11 kV three-phase current, it kept the contact line at 1,500 V direct current using mercury-vapour rectifiers, with a power of 4,500 kW. Freight traffic ended in 1972.
Around Gif-sur-Yvette
- Église Saint-Rémi, 500 m away — The old village church beside the Yvette, with roots in the early Middle Ages; restored in 1985.
- Château de Button, 550 m away — A château completed in 1771 for Claude Mérault, now occupied by CNRS laboratories.
- Château de Belleville, 2400 m away — A 17th-century château built for the Parisian bourgeois Gilles de Trapu, turned into an agricultural school in 1922.