Official opening of the new Hall 2 at the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris

26 June 2013 - Events - France

The new Hall 2 of Paris's Gare de Lyon railway station was officially opened on Wednesday, 26 June 2013, following three years of works.

VINCI Construction France enlisted the full range of its complex urban project management capabilities over a period of two years to give the station a new renovated space developed as a vibrant centre of urban life.

For a project on this scale, carried out in an operating railway station and in buildings that in part have historic monument status, working methods and scheduling must be organised around station operations. The many aspects affected - working times, noise levels for personnel and travellers, peak periods, safety constraints, etc. - dictated the methods used.

Chantiers Modernes Construction, a subsidiary of VINCI Construction France, built on its long experience with works in occupied sites to submit an efficient and effective project organisation to the SNCF.

The Gare de Lyon, like all the large stations built over a century ago, no longer met modern standards of comfort, accessibility and maintenance. Over the past 30 years, commuting distances have been steadily increasing. Cities are expanding, creating a need for new transport links. In the Greater Paris area, 70% of trips now involve travel from one suburb to another and 80% of them are made by automobile for lack of alternative transport. The focus is now on public transport and priority is given to making it more efficient and welcoming, better coordinating rail transport with other individual and collective modes and better integrating the railway station in the city.

The Gare de Lyon offers a preview of the Grand Paris railway station as a city amenity, with new services enabling travellers to make efficient use of their time there.