Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Tourcoing Station, located in the Nord department in the Hauts-de-France region, is a major railway monument built in the early twentieth century. It replaces a first station inaugurated in 1842, quickly saturated by the industrial textile boom of the Belle Époque. The current building, completed in 1905, is designed by architects Clément Ligny, M. Aumont and Vainey, inspired by the neo-Louis XIII style of the nearby Roubaix railway station, with a 110-metre brick and stone façade, a central clock and a glazed metal hall.

The station plays a key role as a border station with Belgium, integrating customs services, a hotel, a post office and spaces dedicated to travellers and goods. It is also the scene of a dark episode of history: on September 1, 1944, the Loos Train sent 871 political prisoners to the Nazi camps. Ranked a Historic Monument in 1984, it evolves with the arrival of the TGV in 1993 and the Ouigo in 2015, becoming the third busiest station in the Lille metropolis.

Between 2020 and 2022, major works (€7.2 million) restored the building and its surroundings, adding a multimodal exchange hub (bike garage, relay parking) and preparing a future tram service. The station, which is always active, thus combines historical heritage and modernity, while serving as a setting for cinematographic productions such as The Body of My Enemy (1976) or the series Les Petits Murtres by Agatha Christie (2020).

Architecturally, the station is distinguished by its central glass hall, its side mansard pavilions, and a paved courtyard opening onto fan streets. Its style, adapted to local materials (brick, stone), reflects the industrial identity of the region. The adjacent Sernam Hall, purchased and rehabilitated in 2019, and the nearby TGV garage (shared with Wattrelos) underline its continuing logistical importance.

Today, the station of Tourcoing remains a strategic railway node, served by TGVs (Paris, Lyon, Rennes), Ouigo, TER Hauts-de-France and international trains to Belgium. Its history, marked by technical and social transformations, makes it a symbol of the resilience and adaptation of the French industrial heritage.

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