The new railway line extension opened in 1900, linking Gare d'Austerlitz and Gare d'OrsayMusée d'Orsay station entrance on Rue Légion Honneur, with the Musée d'Orsay in the background
By the late 1930s, SNCF mainline trains had grown too long for the platforms at Gare d'Orsay, and had to terminate at Gare d'Austerlitz. Orsay station fell into disuse and lay derelict for many years. The line was brought back into passenger service when a 1-kilometre (0.62 mi) extension was built in a tunnel along the bank of the Seine, connecting the former PO line to the Gare des Invalides, the terminus of the Rive Gauche line to Versailles. A new Quai d'Orsay underground station was built on the bank of the River Seine, adjacent to the old Orsay terminal station. The new link opened as the Transversal Rive Gauche on 26 September 1979, and today this forms the central section of the RER Line C.[4][5] On the opening of the Musée d'Orsay in the former Gare d'Orsay station in 1986, Quai d'Orsay station was renamed after the museum.
On 17 October 1995, Musée d'Orsay station was subjected to a terrorist attack during the 1995 France bombings, when a gas bottle exploded between Musée d'Orsay and Saint-Michel–Notre-Dame station, wounding 29 people.[6]
^Baer, Christopher T. (March 2005). "PRR Chronology"(PDF). The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society. p. 10. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2010.