Construction work started on 17 July 1923; the grand staircase was opened on 22 December 1925, before being formally inaugurated by President Gaston Doumergue on 24 April 1927.

To the rear of the station along Boulevard Voltaire was the goods yard which was used up until the end of the 1990s by the SNCF's road freight operations, Sernam.

On New Year's Eve 1983, a bomb at the station killed two people; Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known as Carlos the Jackal, was later convicted for what was classified as a terrorist attack.

At the end of the 1990s, a redevelopment project began with the opening of the Marseille Metro and bus interchange as well as the arrival of the LGV Méditerranée.

[1] On 1 October 2017, two women were killed in a knife attack at the train station before the perpetrator, an illegal immigrant from Tunisia, was shot dead by soldiers on patrol.