The station, which was opened during July 1928, was constructed on a grand scale to serve as a major hub for cross-border railway traffic.

[1] However, even prior to the start of the twentieth century, there was consistently insufficient capacity to accommodate demand for cross-border traffic, and a third border crossing would be needed.

Thus, when the project got underway, it was decided the facility would be built at Los Arañones, situated in a relatively undeveloped valley near the village of Canfranc.

It was formally opened on 18 July 1928, in the presence of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and the president of the French Republic Gaston Doumergue.

[3] During the Second World War, the station and the surrounding area acquired a reputation as the "Casablanca in the Pyrenees" due to its serving as a key crossing point for goods, as well as being a center of espionage for Nazi and Spanish authorities.

[1] Officially neutral Spain had formed an operational agreement with the Wehrmacht, which saw freight trains carrying mined tungsten northwards while French grain, as well as trans-shipped Swiss gold, was borne southwards.

In the 1960s, the future of both the station and the Pau-Canfranc railway became increasingly threatened, and they were chronically underfunded, leading to frequent incidents that eventually raised safety concerns.

The station's principal purpose of operation came to an abrupt halt on 20 March 1970, when a train derailment on the Pau-Canfranc railway line demolished the L'Estanguet bridge on the French side of the Pyrénées Mountains.

Under financial pressure from its national railway company SNCF, the French government decided not to rebuild the bridge, which effectively forced the closure of the cross-border line.

[5] Despite this, the station remained open, served by just two daily Spanish trains[1] and a handful of rail replacement buses from the French side.

[3] In February 2020, it was announced that funding from the European Union had been made available for the purpose of reopening the through line and relaunching international services.

[8] For the buildings and their site were also proposed a 200-seat conference centre, a branch of the regional railway museum, shops, and a pilgrim refuge, as Canfranc is on one of the routes to Santiago de Compostela.