gares

Gares is the plural form of the French noun gare, which denotes a railway station or train station. In French usage, a gare is the facility where trains stop to carry passengers, and sometimes freight, including platforms, tracks, a station building, ticket offices, signage, and waiting areas.

In English, gare is used mainly in reference to French stations or in the plural form when describing multiple stations in a region. The word is not commonly used to refer to non-French stations, though “la gare” is a familiar term for a single French station in everyday speech.

Gares can vary in size and function. Grandes gares are major hubs that handle a high volume of long-distance and high-speed services, serve as interchanges, and feature extensive services and amenities. Petites gares are smaller local stations with more limited schedules and facilities. Some stations act as terminus stations, where trains reverse direction, while others function as through stations on a line.

Operations at a gare are typically managed by a national or regional railway company, with SNCF in France as a prominent example. Beyond passenger services, some stations also handle freight operations or are integrated with local transportation networks, including connections to bus or metro services. The term gare appears on signage and timetable materials, and it is common to use the plural gares when listing multiple stations, such as in travel guides or maps.

Overall, gares form the core infrastructure of rail transport in French-speaking contexts, serving as focal points for travel, commerce, and urban movement.