A first railway station at Comines was built in 1853 by the English-owned Société des chemins de fer de la Flandre-Occidentale, on the line Kortrijk-Poperinge. In 1876 the railway was connected to the station of Comines-France. The actual station also dates from after the First World War, when the original one was destroyed. With exception of the State Railway Ghent-Kortrijk, and via Mouscron to the French border, the railways in the province of West-Flanders where all built by the Société des Chemins de Fer de la Flandre Occidentale, which was mainly a British company. When the company was established in 1845 five of the six directors-shareholders were British, the sixth was a rich Bruges merchant who had many connections with the United Kingdom... The first line, Bruges-Kortrijk, offering a shortcut between Oostende and Lille, was built during the crisis years engaging many unemployed labourers at extreme low wages, and became known as the 'dry bread railway'. The line was completed in July 1847.
The 'Société des Chemins de fer de la Flandre occidentale' decided shortly after finishing the line Bruges-Kortrijk to establish a network with an series of lines crossing the border and connecting with the French railway system - thus competing with the State Railways. One of those would be a line Kortrijk-Poperinge. Getting the concessions, finalizing the financing and building the line took more time than expected. Only in January 1853 one was able to open a first stretch between Kortrijk and Wervik, followed by Wervik-Comines (June 1853), Comines-Ypres (March 1854) and Ypres-Poperinge.