Electrified double track it is 105 kilometres (65 mi) long.

Completed in 1848, it was the first railway to reach the coastal port of Calais.

The Paris-Lille railway had reached Lille from Paris two years previously.

In 1993, it was bypassed by the LGV Nord high-speed line running from Lille-Europe to Calais-Fréthun and the Channel Tunnel.

The main traffic today is freight and local TER Hauts-de-France passenger trains.