Saint-Leu-la-Forêt: station history
Served by: Transilien H.
Did you know?
A Val-d'Oise station on the Ermont - Valmondois junction via Saint-Leu-la-Forêt, opened in 1876 as a single track at first, then doubled in 1889, by the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord. Originally the station building was modest: a narrow six-bay low wing and a two-storey staff house set perpendicularly. In the 1920s it was remodelled: a large central ticket hall topped by a clock tower, and altered wings with half-timbering on the façade, in the spirit of the rebuilding of Taverny station. The station has two tracks, a central platform, a side track and two stabling tracks.
Anecdote
The Paris - Lille line first ran through the Montmorency valley, then through the Oise valley; the present route through the plaine de France and Chantilly, opened in 1859, relegated this old itinerary to a secondary role. Electrification came in stages: Paris - Lille via Creil in 1958, the lines to Brussels and Crépy-en-Valois in 1963, then Paris - Pontoise and Pontoise - Creil in 1969. The modernisation aimed notably to replace the 141 TC steam locomotives, at the end of 1970.
Around Saint-Leu-la-Forêt
- Église Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles, 750 m away — A church built in 1849 by Louis-Napoléon and consecrated in 1851, whose crypt holds the tomb of Louis Bonaparte and his sons.
- Croix du prince de Condé, 900 m away — A cross at 78 Rue du Château, raised by the Prince of Condé after his only son's execution.