Saint-Denis Université: station history
Served by: metro line 13.
Why this name?
A line 13 metro station, terminus of the north-east branch and the northernmost station of the entire Paris metropolitan network. Its two platforms, on either side of the two tracks, are at ground level, under a slab that carries a vast entrance hall: there is "no intermediate level" between the surface and the platforms, which is very unusual for the Paris metro. The platforms are I-shaped, wide at the ends and narrower in the centre, where staff rooms reduce their width. The name comes from the immediate proximity of the Paris-VIII university.
Anecdote
An extension of line 13 to the Paris-VIII university was envisaged as early as the 1970s. The investment amounts to 525 million euros, 70% financed by the Region. A 300-space multi-storey park-and-ride was inaugurated nearby before the station itself. In 2004, the government chose the site for the new headquarters of the Archives nationales, whose opening, planned for 2009, took place in 2013. A secure Véligo bicycle shelter with 52 spaces there is the first on line 13, and a bus station is attached to the station.
Around Saint-Denis Université
- Université Paris 8, 800 m away — A university founded in 1969, known for its innovative teaching approach inherited from May 1968.
- Basilique de Saint-Denis, 450 m away — The first Gothic building in history and the necropolis of the Kings of France for over a thousand years.
- Mairie de Saint-Denis, 500 m away — The Saint-Denis town hall, a historic town north of Paris.