A Railway Station in France Opens in Time to Help with a Major World Sporting Event

January 25, 1998

In France, a new railway station was opened for service in the commune of Saint-Denis in the northern suburbs of Paris. This station, which is known as La Plaine-Stade de France, had been designed by architect Jean-Marie Duthilleul.

The station is a link within the Réseau Express Régional (RER), a hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system serving the Paris region. RER has been in existence since 1977.

La Plaine-Stade de France is named in part for the country’s national stadium. That facility, located nearby in Saint-Denis, made its formal debut just three days after the opening of La Plaine-Stade de France. From June 10 to July 12 of that year, the FIFA World Cup – the international championship for men’s national association football teams – was held at the Stade de France. La Plaine-Stade de France was among the local RER stations used for transporting people to and from those games. (Along with serving as the host country, France finished the games as that year’s World Cup champion.)

La Plaine-Stade de France remains in operation today as one of 47 stations along RER B, one of RER’s five lines in the vicinity of France’s capital city. The length of the north-south RER B is 50 miles (80 kilometers). The length of RER in its entirety is 365 miles (587 kilometers).

For more information on the Réseau Express Régional (RER), please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Réseau_Express_Régional