Gare de La Bastille - Services

Services

When the station opened in 1859, services were provided by 2-4-0 locomotives. There was no room at the Gare de la Bastille for a turntable, and these locomotives were replaced by 2-4-0T locomotives (CF de L'Est Class 120) by the 1870s. These in turn were replaced by 0-6-2T locomotives (later SNCF Class 031TA) and 2-6-2T (later SNCF Class 131TA) locomotives. From 1925, larger 2-6-2T locomotives (later SNCF Class 131TB) worked the line. From the 1960s, SNCF Class 141TB 2-8-2T locomotives worked the line.

Early passenger carriages were of a double-deck type known as "Imperials". From the 1890s, these were replaced by another double-deck type known as "Bidels". Trains usually included a fourgon (brake van) at each end of the train to save time by removing the need for shunting. The "Bidels" were in service until 1949 on the Ligne de Vincennes and for a few years later elsewhere. An "Imperial" and a "Bidel" are preserved at the Musée Français du Chemin de Fer in Mulhouse. After the end of the Second World War, bogie carriages previously in service with the Deutsche Reichsbahn were used. These were known by the French as "Bastilles". Following the electrification of the line serving the Gare de l'Est in the early 1960s, push-pull stock replaced the "Bastilles". They were used until the line closed in 1969.

The Gare de la Bastille was, except possibly in its earliest days, an almost purely passenger station. Parcels and post were handled but almost the only freight was coal for the 3-road engine shed. General freight was handled at a goods station located at the other end of the viaduct at Reuilly but the Gare de la Bastille did handle one rather unusual traffic. Following devastation by phylloxera and increased competition from wine shipped in by rail, vineyards that had traditionally supplied Paris in the area served by the outer rural section of the Ligne de Vincennes switched to growing roses. A Train des Roses was introduced as early as 1897, arriving at the Gare de la Bastille in the early hours. The roses were sold in the markets at Les Halles. Traffic peaked at over 1,000,000 roses per night.

By the First World War, there were 45 arrivals and departures daily. Eight trains a day ran the full length of the line to Verneuil-l'Etang, with stations closer to Paris receiving a more frequent service than those further away. Between 1925 and 1930, there were about 70 arrivals and departures daily; these had been cut to 48 by 1938.