Liège Metro Station

Liège is a station on line 13 of the Paris Métro on the border of the 8th and 9th arrondissements.

It was built as part of the Nord-Sud Company's Line B from Saint-Lazare to Porte de Saint-Ouen and opened on 26 February 1911 as Berlin, named after the nearby Rue Berlin. As the Rue d'Amsterdam, which the line runs under at this point, is too narrow to accommodate platforms across from each other, the station was built with offset platforms. It was closed on 1 August 1914 at the beginning of World War I. It reopened on 1 December 1914, when it and the street it was named after had been renamed after the Belgian city of Liège, paying homage to the heroïc Belgian resistance during the Battle of Liège who surely saved French and British armies. On 27 March 1931 the Nord-Sud Company was taken over by the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris and line B became line 13 of the Métro.

The station was closed at the beginning of World War II, when many stations were closed for economy reasons. Unlike all but eight of the closed stations, its reopening was significantly delayed, in this case until 1968. Even then its opening hours were limited, being closed on Sunday and closing at 8pm on the other days, with all trains running through without stopping. Although Rennes station, which also reopened in 1968 began to operate normal opening hours in 2004, the authorities refused to agree to Liège working normal hours. Changing lifestyles and increasing redevelopment of the area, with residences replacing offices, inspired a sustained political campaign. Eventually it was agreed to operate normal hours from 4 December 2006.

In 1982, Liège was refurbished with new ceramic decorations made in Welkenraedt, Belgium, which evoke the landscapes and monuments of the Province of Liège. It had further renovation work in December 2006.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Liège (Paris Métro)" and modified on July 23, 2019 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.