"Horizon 2024" for the new Gare du Nord development project in Paris

Baptized "Horizon 2024" - a more appropriate name than the "plan B" for a time mentioned -, it should make it possible to improve the existing, after the abandonment, in September, of a vast project which was to be carried out by the Auchan property company.

The idea is to have "a greener, more readable, more fluid station, and also a station that is more open to the city", a project resulting from intense consultation with the City of Paris, Ile-de-France Mobilités and carriers, we explain at SNCF Gares & Connexions.

The manager of the French stations will first endeavor to review all the signage, on the ground and at height, by following an overall traffic diagram.

It will also be a question of better identifying and differentiating the waiting areas and the circulation of passengers, so that they do not jostle each other.

SNCF Gares & Connexions also intends to work on the lighting of the Gare du Nord, if only to reduce the feeling of insecurity, which is real in some of the buildings. Commercial spaces that had to close in anticipation of the major works announced will also reopen by 2023.

The project will also concern the expansion of the cross-Channel terminal and the suburban train area. At the same time, escalators will be changed or added, allowing in particular to improve exchanges with the underground platforms of the RER – which themselves must be renovated.

The SNCF also wants to "open the station to the city", with a redevelopment of the square - carried by the town hall of Paris - where only buses and two-wheelers would circulate, and a relocation of taxis.

Another forecourt should be set up on the right side, next to the refurbished bus station and a bicycle station.

The cross-Channel terminal should be completed for the Rugby World Cup in September 2023 and the rest in June 2024, before the Olympics, according to Gares & Connexions.

The cost is estimated by the branch of the SNCF at 30 million euros, to which must be added twenty million operations already scheduled. The renovation of the forecourt is not included.

The SNCF had denounced in September the contract binding it to Ceetrus - the Auchan property company - to carry out a much more massive and controversial project to renovate the Gare du Nord, citing a lack of control of the project, a surge in very significant costs and delays.

Beyond the deadline for the Olympics, SNCF Gares & Connexions says it is considering a new project likely to respond to the expected growth in rail traffic.