Lyon-Saint-Exupéry TGV station (formerly ''Gare de Satolas TGV'') is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

near

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, directly attached to

Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport Lyon–Saint Exupéry Airport (french: link=no, Aéroport de Lyon-Saint Exupéry), formerly known as ''Lyon Satolas Airport'' , is the international airport of Lyon, the third-biggest city in France and an important transport facility for the e ...

. The station was built as an addition to the airport to serve

TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...

trains on the

LGV Rhône-Alpes The LGV Rhône-Alpes (French: ''Ligne à Grande Vitesse''; English: high-speed line) is a French high-speed rail line situated in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region which extends the LGV Sud-Est southwards. Opened to service in 1994, the line b ...

, part of the main line running from

Paris Gare de Lyon The Gare de Lyon, officially Paris-Gare-de-Lyon, is one of the six large mainline railway stations in Paris, France. It handles about 148.1 million passengers annually according to the estimates of the SNCF in 2018, with SNCF railways and RE ...

to Marseille Saint-Charles. It is situated about 20 km east of Lyon

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

Overview

Saint-Exupéry station was designed by

Santiago Calatrava Santiago Calatrava Valls (born 28 July 1951) is a Spanish architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter, particularly known for his bridges supported by single leaning pylons, and his railway stations, stadiums, and museums, whose sculpt ...

, cost 750 million

Francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...

and opened on 3 July 1994, at the same time as the high-speed line to

Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence (, literally ''Saint-Marcel near Valence''; oc, Sant Marçau de Valença) is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France. Population Geography The commune of Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence borders the cit ...

. The building is mostly a combination of concrete and steel. The station has six tracks laid in a cutting. The two central tracks are isolated to permit trains to traverse the station at full speed (300 km/h) and have no platforms. The two external sets of tracks have 500 m long platforms. A small piece of land to the west is put aside for future expansion. Above the tracks, a 300 m long passenger concourse gives easy access to the platforms and is equipped with several

travelator A moving walkway, also known as an autowalk, moving pavement, moving sidewalk, people-mover, travolator, or travelator, is a slow-moving conveyor mechanism that transports people across a horizontal or inclined plane over a short to medium distan ...

s. The railway station is linked to Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport by a footbridge equipped with a travelator. This airport is historically the first to be served by a high-speed station. This proximity to the airport has not helped the station and it sees little use as passengers mainly use Lyon-Perrache and Lyon Part-Dieu.

Criticism

Lack of interconnection with Lyon's urban transport network is frequently cited for the station's low usage. The arrival of the

Rhônexpress Rhônexpress is an express tram-train service which links central Lyon, France, with its airport, Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, and the TGV train station located there. The route is long, and served by six tram-train sets, built by Swiss man ...

express tram (opened August 2010) is unlikely to change this as Lyon residents will still find it easier (and cheaper) to use the stations within the city. The main "advantage" of the station is for travellers, arriving by plane, who are travelling onwards to the east. The underutilisation of the station has led to lower access charges than for the busier downtown stations, leading to low-cost operator

Ouigo Ouigo () is a French low-cost service range of both conventional and high-speed trains. The literal translation of ''Ouigo'' from French to English is "yes go;" the name is also a play on words with the English homonym "we go." It is composed o ...

making it part of its network.

Train services

The station is served by the following services: * High speed services (''TGV'') from Paris to Grenoble * High speed services (''TGV'') from Paris to Valence, Montélimar and Avignon * High speed services (''TGV'') from Paris to Valence, Montélimar, Avignon and Miramas * High speed services (''TGV

'') from Marne-la-Vallée to Lyon Saint-Exupéry, Avignon and Marseille Saint-Charles * High speed services (''TGV

'') from Marne-la-Vallée to Lyon Saint-Exupéry, Nîmes and Montpellier * High speed services (''TGV

'') from Paris to Grenoble, Albertville and Bourg-Saint-Maurice (seasonal)

References

External links

* * Santiago Calatrava structures Railway stations in France opened in 1994 Saint-Exupery Airport railway stations in France Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Buildings and structures in Rhône (department) {{RhoneAlpes-railstation-stub