Ligne de Sceaux

Sceaux Line
The station at Place Denfert-Rochereau, at the time when it was the terminus of the line. Designed in the days of the broad-gauge track of the Arnoux system, the curved shape of the buildings allowed trains to serve the terminus by turning along the interior façade.
Overview
Native name	French
Owner	Cie Paris à Sceaux (1844–1857) Cie du P.O. (1857–1929) CMP, later RATP (since 1929)
Locale	Southern suburbs of Paris
Termini	Paris Limours, Sceaux
Service
Operator(s)	RATP
History
Opened	1846–1867
Technical
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Old gauge	1,750 mm (5 ft 8+7⁄8 in) (standardised in 1893)
Electrification	1500 V DC
Route map Legend km Opened RER B towards Châtelet–Les Halles 1.4 Luxembourg 1893 0.7 Port-Royal 1893 0.0 Paris-D'Enfer now Denfert-Rochereau 1846 former D'Enfer loop 1.5 Sceaux-Ceinture now Cité Universitaire ; Petite Ceinture 1891 1.55 Gentilly Tunnel 1935 2.0 1935 2.1 Gentilly 1891 3.2 Laplace 1891 4.1 Arcueil–Cachan 1846 5.2 Bagneux 1930 6.3 6.8 Bourg-la-Reine 1846 8.0 Sceaux 1893 8.8 Fontenay now Fontenay-aux-Roses 1846 10.2 Sceaux-Robinson now Robinson 1846 8.0 La Croix de Berny 1854 8.8 Antony 1854 11.9 from Juvisy via Grande Ceinture 12.0 Massy–Verrières 1854 13.5 Massy now Massy-Palaiseau 1852 14.4 to Chartres via Limours-État and Gallardon-Pont 1930 14.8 Palaiseau to Versailles via Grande Ceinture 1854 16.1 Palaiseau–Villebon 1854 18.1 Lozère 1854 19.5 Le Guichet 1854 20.3 Les Planches 1852 20.7 Orsay-Ville 1854 22.0 Bures-sur-Yvette 1891 24.2 Gif-sur-Yvette 1867 27.1 Courcelle-sur-Yvette 1867 29.3 Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse 1867 29.4 Section abandoned in 1939 34.3 Boullay-les-Troux 1867 High point at 176 m 1867 33.5 Limours-État to Massy and to Chartres via Gallardon-Pont 1922 37.8 Limours P.-O. 1867 Source: French railway atlas[1] This diagram: view talk edit

The Ligne de Sceaux (Sceaux Line) was a railway line in France running from Paris, which initially linked the Place Denfert-Rochereau (then called the Place d'Enfer, in Paris, to the town of Sceaux.

The line originally opened in 1846 as a broad gauge line to demonstrate the Arnoux system and was extended to the south to Sceaux. A branch, now the main line, was built to Orsay and extended to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse and then to Limours. In the latter configuration, it is also called the Paris-Luxembourg–Limours line (line 552000 of the national rail network) by SNCF Réseau.^[2]

With a capital of 3 million francs, it was one of five companies placed under sequestration by the State during the Crash of 1847,^[3] along with the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans on 4 April 1848, the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Bordeaux à La Teste on 30 October 1848 and the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Marseille à Avignon on 21 November 1848. Similarly, the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Lyon was nationalised in 1848.^[4]

In 1895, it was extended north into Paris to Luxembourg station. In 1937, it was transferred by the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans to the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris (CMP) after thorough modernisation. The commissioning of electric railcars suitable for the line, the Z railcars, and the redevelopment of the infrastructure with high platforms and high-performance signalling made it a core section of a future regional metro, enabling it to double its traffic in less than a year. The section from Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse to Limours was abandoned in 1939.

After a period of particularly high traffic during the Second World War and the following years, the 40 km (25 mi) long line was integrated into the Réseau Express Régional (Regional Express Network, RER) in 1977. It now constitutes the two southern branches of line B of the RER south of the Gare du Nord: branch B2 to Robinson and branch B4 to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse.