Gare de Toulouse Matabiau
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Toulouse-Matabiau is the main railway station of the French southern city of Toulouse.
[edit] History
Toulouse waited a long time for the arrival of the railway as one of its mayors, Joseph Villèle, refused to accept it.[citation needed] It was only in the middle of the 19th century that the railroad finally arrived in the city.
In 1853, Émile and his brother Jacob Pereire founded the CF du Midi. Three years later, the line from Agen to Toulouse opened and was then extended from Bordeaux to Sète in 1857.
The current passenger building was only built between 1903 and 1905, replacing an older and smaller building. The station took the name of the borough it was situated in, an area called Matabiau, named after Saint Saturnin, mata-bios meaning kill the bull. It was designed by Marius Toudoire (who also designed the station at Bordeaux) and was built with stone from the Roman city of Saintes. Like the Midi station in Bordeaux, Matabiau station bears 26 coats of arms on the front of the building of the 26 destinations that Midi served.
Some work was carried out on the building in 1938 prior to it being listed.[clarify]
[edit] Destinations
Toulouse-Matabiau is situated at the heart of a six-branch star network of lines with both regional and national (TGV and Corail) services.
Toulouse is served by the following lines:
- Toulouse-Montauban
- Toulouse-Saint-Sulpice
- Toulouse-Carcassonne
- Toulouse-Tarbes and Bayonne
- Toulouse-Foix
- Toulouse-Auch
Several SNCF facilities are present near the station, including the old Toulouse-Raynal goods yard now a carriage and engine maintenance yard and the large Saint-Jory marshalling yard 15 kilometers (9 mi) to the north.
