Châtelet–Les Halles station () is a major train hub in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and the largest underground stations in the world. Opened in 1977, it is the central transit hub for the

Paris metropolitan area The Paris metropolitan area () is a statistical area that describes the reach of commuter movement to and from Paris, France and its surrounding suburbs. Overview In 2020, France's national INSEE statistical bureau introduced the concept "ai ...

, connecting three of five RER commuter-rail lines and five of sixteen Métro lines. The hub hosts travellers per weekday ( for the RER alone) and platforms separated by up to . It is named after the nearby

Place du Châtelet The Place du Châtelet () is a public square in Paris, on the right bank of the river Seine, on the borderline between the 1st and 4th arrondissements. It lies at the north end of the Pont au Change, a bridge that connects the Île de la Cit� ...

public square and

Les Halles Les Halles (; 'The Halls') was Paris' central fresh food market. It last operated on 12 January 1973 and was replaced by an underground shopping centre and a park. The unpopular modernist development was demolished yet again in 2010, and replac ...

, the former wholesale food market of Paris, now a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

Terminology

Formally, the name Châtelet–Les Halles designates the RER station alone. Informally, it refers to the hub comprising the eponymous RER station (served by

RER A RER A is one of the five lines in the Réseau Express Régional (English: Regional Express Network), a hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system serving the city and suburbs of Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List o ...

RER B RER B is one of the five lines in the Réseau Express Régional (English: Regional Express Network), a hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system serving Paris, France and its Île-de-France suburbs. The RER B line crosses the region from no ...

and

RER D RER D is one of the five lines in the (English: Regional Express Network), a hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system serving Paris and its suburbs. The line crosses the region from north to south, with all trains serving a group of stat ...

) plus the contiguous

Paris Métro The Paris Métro (, , or , ), short for Métropolitain (), is a rapid transit system serving the Paris metropolitan area in France. A symbol of the city, it is known for its density within the capital's territorial limits, uniform architectur ...

stations Châtelet (served by Line 1, Line 4, Line 7, Line 11 and Line 14) and

(served by Line 4). For purposes of

wayfinding Wayfinding (or way-finding) encompasses all of the ways in which people (and animals) Orientation (mental), orient themselves in physical space and navigation, navigate from place to place. Wayfinding software is a self-service computer program th ...

, the massive three station complex is broken up into three sectors: Forum, Rivoli and Seine.

Forum sector

The Forum sector is named after the adjoining

Forum des Halles Les Halles (; 'The Halls') was Paris' central fresh food market. It last operated on 12 January 1973 and was replaced by an underground shopping centre and a park. The unpopular modernist development was demolished yet again in 2010, and replac ...

shopping mall, which is accessible from this part of the station. The sector includes the RER platforms and the

station on

Paris Métro Line 4 Line 4 () is one of the sixteen lines of the Paris Métro rapid transit system and one of its three fully automated lines. Situated mostly within the boundaries of the City of Paris, it connects Porte de Clignancourt (Paris Métro), Porte de C ...

. The exits located in the sector are numbered 1 through 9.

Rivoli sector

The Rivoli sector is below and named after the

Rue de Rivoli The Rue de Rivoli (; English: "Rivoli Street") is a street in central Paris, France. It is a commercial street whose shops include leading fashionable brands. It bears the name of Napoleon's early victory against the Austrian army, at the Battle o ...

, a major road known for its shopping and includes the Châtelet station of Line 1, Line 4 and Line 14 of the Paris Métro. The exits located in the sector are numbered 10 through 14.

Seine sector

The Seine sector is named after the nearby

Seine River The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres p ...

and includes the Châtelet station of Line 7 and Line 11 of the Paris Métro. The exits located in the sector are numbered 15 through 19.

RER station layout

The tracks of all three RER lines are oriented parallel along an east–west direction. The seven tracks are grouped on four platforms, with the outer platforms reserved for RER A and RER B and the central ones for RER D. This enables easy cross-platform connections between RER A and RER B trains traveling in the same direction, and a solution for those RER D trains which use the station as a terminus.

Renovation

A major renovation of the station complex and adjoining

shopping mall was completed in 2018, with the main aim of improving safety in the event of an emergency evacuation at peak traffic time. The renovation included the construction of a major new entrance at Place Marguerite de Navarre, with direct access to the RER station hall; the complete renovation and enlargement of the RER station hall; and extension of key escalators to lower levels of the station.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chatelet - Les Halles (Paris Rer) Réseau Express Régional stations Railway stations in France opened in 1977 Buildings and structures in the 1st arrondissement of Paris