55 Minutes from Arriving in Gare du Nord to Leaving from the Gare St. Lazare - How Would You Get From One Station to the Next?
 

I have only 55 minutes to go from Gare du Nord to the Gare St. Lazare - (we have to actually be on the train within 55 minutes). I will have my Mother with me and she is not a fast walker. Is this doable? Thanks!

Given your situation, definitely take a cab. I assume you're coming in by Eurostar or Thalys. If you're arriving during peak travel times or on a holiday, then I suggest you take advantage of the taxi reservation service available on the trains. They are a little overpriced (IMHO) but you will be able to bypass the regular taxi waiting line (I haven't used their service in Paris, but I know they charge a flat 20 euro rate in Brussels, which is more than you would spend to get to most places in town if you took an unreserved taxi).
I don't think you should have any problem, but you sound a little anxious, so a reserved taxi would give you the most peace of mind.
The metro would be pretty fast as well, but you will have to negotiate some stairs (which doesn't sound like the best thing for your mother), especially if you will have luggage. OTOH, if you have the *rare* bad luck to arrive on a day with massive street demonstrations or a taxi strike (very unlikely), then the metro would still get you there within your 55 minute window. You can buy individual metro tickets in the bar cars of the Thalys or Eurostar, so get them before arriving to avoid waiting in the sometimes long lines at the metro ticket booths and machines.

The RER-line E gets you straight from Gare du Nord to Saint Lazare. Note: an RER ticket is not the same as a metro ticket, but if you can buy metro tickets at the TGV, I assume you'll be able to buy RER tickets as well. BTilke, can you confirm this?

According to the RATP Route Planner, allow five minutes to walk from Gare du Nord to the Magenta RER station. (My Metro/RER map indicates there is a connected walkway.) The ride to the Hausmann Saint-Lazare RER station takes four minutes. Then allow seven minutes to walk to Gare Saint-Lazare. (Again, my map indicates there is a connected walkway.) Of course, there will steps to go down at Gare du Nord to get to the RER station and steps to go up at the other end which may be a challenge for charlieg's mother. Does anyone know if there are elevators?

I have used regular metro tickets on the RER within Paris itself--whether they would work on this particular route, I don't know. Given that Charlie's mother is not a fast walker and they may have luggage, I would double the walking times and also hope that they hit the RER arrival time just right. Plus if they are seated in one of the rear arriving cars of the Thalys or Eurostar, it could take five minutes to walk the length of the platform (since Charlie's mother is a slow walker)
If saving money is the priority, then by all means take the RER--I hadn't thought of that option and it's a good one. But if comfort and peace of mind is the priority, I'd still take a taxi.

As my mom was in a wheelchair for several years I tend to watch disability access in Europe.

Though there may (I repeat may) be an elevator in both stations I notice the ones in the Paris metro have a high incidence of "out of service" problems.

In other words, even if the Metro station does have an elevator, don't count on it working.

To give you the flip side of BTilke's excellent advice. If you are there on a very, very rare day when the Metro is on strike, you'll be battling with everyone else for the few remaining taxis. "Les greves" are almost a sport in France. :-)

For my own peace of mind I'd have a back up plan as you know what can happen with the best of plans. Is there a later train? If not you might have the names of a couple of hotels in the area handy so you can spend the night.

The tickets for the metro and RER are the same ticket within the "zone urbaine" which is zones 1-2 for both, and a few metro stops in zone 3.

Hi charlie,

Take a cab.

Thanks to everyone for the detailed replys. I have decided that we will take a cab, and I will check into the reserved cabs. Does anyone know how far it is (in miles) between the two stations? Thanks again.

If there is a way to reserve a cab, I highly recommend it. When we were just in Paris in March, the waiting time in the regular cab line approached 30 minutes. This was true at both Austerlitz and Gare de l'Est.

According to www.viamichelin.com, it's 4.5 miles between the stations and average driving time is 24 minutes.

Michelin is definitely wrong on that one -- all of Paris is about 4.5 to 5 miles across (length and width). I'd say it's about two miles. It's hard to say about the driving time, completely depends on traffic, but 20 min would be believable.

I have had a longer wait at Gare du Nord to get a cab than CDG, that's true, although I haven't done it that often.

Was the Michelin figure in km? that sounds better.

I doublechecked www.viamichelin.com and found the 4.5 figure is definitely *miles*, not kilometers. I also checked the www.mappy.com site and found a figure of 6 km. FYI, the Mappy site estimates the driving time as only ten minutes.

Are we talking about Gare du Nord to Gare St. Lazare. I just checked www.viamichelin, and it says 1.9 miles via Rue de Maubeuge and Blvd Haussmann. The reverse trip via the more direct Rue St. Lazare, Rue de Chateaudun and Rue La Lafayette is 1.5 miles.

If you see 4.5 miles, your cab driver is taking you on a tour of Paris. Or you're going somewhere else.

Just for the record, I tried the Michelin site one more time, making sure I had entered the names of the stations correctly. I still got 4.5 miles for Gare de Lyon to Gare Saint Lazare. When I entered the reverse route, I got 3.5 miles. I'm not contesting rkkwan's results nor others' opinion that the figures I got are too big. I'm only reporting what I found at both the Michelin site and the Mappy site. Why two people using the same site got such different results is something I won't even attempt to explain.

Tim - We're talking Gare DU NORD. Not LYON.

Oops! Gare du Nord it is.

my comments that it is about 2 miles isn't exactly an opinion, it's more a fact, as I have several maps and that is what it is when I measured it. In any case, I KNOW it isn't 4.5 miles because I know Paris is only about 5 miles across.

I'm not even going to try using Michelin.

Take a G-D TAXI.