Gare de Bougival

When the line from Saint-Cloud to Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche was built, the Bougival station was constructed on the neighbouring territory of La Celle-Saint-Cloud, on the western edge of the Bougival commune.

For this reason, it took the name Bougival - La Celle-Saint-Cloud.

At the start of the project, a level crossing was planned on the Chemin des Robichons, but it was eventually transformed into an underpass to facilitate shunting at the station.

Like all the stations along the route (with the exception of L'Étang-la-Ville), Bougival complied with the provisions for third-class stations on the Grande Ceinture railway: a goods yard was created, with a width of twenty-five metres, as well as three overflow tracks linked to the main tracks in both directions. In addition, the station is the only one on the line to have a water tower, designed to supply the steam locomotives with water thanks to two hydraulic cranes placed at the head of the platform in each direction.

Although the station was opened as soon as the line was opened in 1884, the distance of the station from the town led the inhabitants to continue to use the tramway from Paris to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which runs along the Seine. It was not until the construction of housing estates after the First World War, and then the electrification of the line by third rail in 1931, that traffic at the station increased significantly.

In 1896, arguing the geographical location of the establishment on its territory, the municipal council of La Celle-Saint-Cloud requested that the name of the commune be placed before that of Bougival, and not the other way around. After examining the request, the administration refused the change, justifying that the majority of passenger traffic came from Bougival.

However, the creation of a new station on the territory of this commune was already envisaged in the long term under the name of La Celle-des-Bois; it opened in 1959, but under the name of La Chataigneraie-Beauregard. On 29 May 1983, the latter was renamed La Celle-Saint-Cloud station, and on the same date, Bougival - La Celle-Saint-Cloud station simply became Bougival station.

In 1965, the sloping underpass known as La Celle at PK 21.116 was replaced by a straight structure with a 20-metre opening. The Ariel (PK 22.986) and Saint-Michel (PK 22.639) overpasses were rebuilt in 1968 and 1976 respectively. For several years in a row, this station took part in the "stations in bloom" competition. A basin on the platform towards Paris is a remnant of the efforts of the then stationmaster.

Daily upward traffic did not exceed 50 passengers when the line opened in 1884, then 102 per day in 1893. It reached 477 passengers in 1938, 1,092 in 1973 and finally 1,220 passengers per day in 2003, making it the station with the lowest traffic on the line after L'Etang-la-Ville.

In 2012, 1,460 passengers travelled by train at this station each weekday.

Heritage of Regional Interest 2019