Park of Toulouse-Matabiau

The station of Toulouse-Matabiau ( Matabuòu in Occitan) is principal the railway Gare with travellers of the Toulouse agglomeration and the Midday-Pyrenees area.

Situation

The Matabiau station is located in the heart of the Toulouse agglomeration, in north-eastern edge of the historical center and the Canal of the South, along a boulevard making the turn of the east of the center town.

It allows the correspondence with the bus interurban by the coach station located at a few tens of meters. In the north of the building travellers also a paying parking lot is.

In the railway network

Toulouse-Matabiau is in the center of a railway “star” with six branches consisted the following lines (in the direction of the needles of a watch on the basis of north):

of Toulouse with Montauban (towards Montauban, Agen and Bordeaux, then Paris), line with double track electrified in 1500V;
of Toulouse with Saint-Sulpice (towards Albi then Rodez, or Villefranche-with-Rouergue then Capdenac, or Castrate then Mazamet), single-track line, not electrified;
of Toulouse with Narbonne (towards Perpignan or Marseilles then Lyon or Nice and the Italy), line with double track electrified in 1500V;
of Toulouse with Foix (towards) Latour-with-Carol and the Spain), single-track line electrified in 1500V;
of Toulouse with Tarbes (towards Pau, Bayonne and the Spain), line with double track electrified in 1500V;
of Toulouse with Colomiers (towards Auch), line in single track partially doubled in the Toulouse, and not electrified agglomeration.

It falls under a railway complex comprising immediately in north, the building site of Toulouse-Raynal, old sorting reconverted in putting up of cars and workshop of maintenance; being next to the station of the east coast, the deposit of Toulouse-Périole; and finally with about fifteen kilometer in north, the Sorting of Saint-Jory.

History

During first half of the 19th century, the fastest means to connect Bordeaux to Sète was to take the Diligence from Bordeaux to Toulouse, in 18 hours, then to borrow the Canal of the South to join Sète in 28 hours. At that time, Toulouse was late on the industrial revolution, and much blame the mayor Joseph Villèle to have refused the Railroad at the beginning of the century.

In 1853, Emile and Jacob Pereire found the Compagnie of the South. They open three years later the railway line of Agen to Toulouse, which was supplemented soon by a line of Bordeaux to Sète, in 1857. To avoid any competition, the company repurchases even the rights of exploitation of the Canal of the South.

The building of the station Matabiau was built only between 1903 and 1905, replacing the primitive station: the unloading dock of the railroad. The name of the Matabiau district where the station was set up refers to the martyrdom of Saint-Saturnin; subdued-bios means “kill-the-bull”.

The building travellers whom we know today was drawn by the Architect Toudoire, and was made out of stone of Saintonge. The 26 served main cities of Bordeaux to Sète have each one them Blason on the frontage.

In 1938, the Compagnie of the South is amalgamated and nationalized with the four other large railroad companies main roads (Northern, Is, Paris-Orleans, the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean) to form the SNCF.

The building was the subject of a rehandling in 1983, right before being declared historic building.

Since 1990, it receives the TGV coming from LGV Atlantique, bringing back Toulouse to 5:00 to 5:30 of Paris, instead of 6:00 with 7:00 by the historical line passing by Orleans and Limoges.

Currently (2005) she is attended by 8 million annual travellers, that is to say: 22000 daily travellers on average.

In the future

In 2009, it will be completed an additional quay increasing the number of ways of the station with 13 including 3 in terminus.
In 2016 or 2017, the construction of the lines at high speed Southern Europe Atlantic and Bordeaux-Toulouse will bring the duration of this way to 1:00, of Toulouse - Paris with 3:00 and of Toulouse - Lille with 5:00 roughly. This line will end a priori in Toulouse-Matabiau.
From here 2017, the number of passengers of Toulouse-Matabiau will double, reaching the 14 million travellers. A vast plan of urban development of the station itself and districts surrounding should be developed by then.
By 2018-2020| , a LGV between Toulouse and Narbonne connecting itself to future LGV Nimes - Perpignan will put Toulouse at 1:00 of Montpellier, 1:45 of Barcelona or Marseilles and 2:15 of Lyon.

See too

FOR THE THIRD TIME the Midday-Pyrenees
Transport in Toulouse
Station
List of the stations of more than one million annual travellers

References

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