Canfranc train station

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Canfranc Station (2015), Spanish track side

The railway station of Canfranc ( Estación Internacional de Canfranc ) is a former border station between Spain and France in the same place . After the shutdown of the railway line in France, it serves as a regional train station and since this change in function it has been very oversized.

history

The station, located at an altitude of 1195 m, was designed as an island station and at the time of commissioning was the junction of the railway lines from Pau (in European standard gauge ) and Saragossa (in Iberian broad gauge ) that ended here.

The railway lines between Pau and Saragossa were built between 1902 and 1927. The French line was electrified with 1500 volts direct current from the beginning to Canfranc station . In 1918, after a ten-year construction period, the eight-kilometer-long railway tunnel under the Spanish-French border at Somport was completed. Because there was not enough space for a large border station on the north side of the tunnel, where construction was originally planned, it was built south of the main ridge of the Pyrenees on a large plateau a few kilometers north of the village of Canfranc (Pueblo). The new Canfranc, called Canfranc Estación to distinguish it, was also created with the station.

The tracks have been dismantled on the French side

On July 18, 1928, the route was in the presence of the Spanish King Alfonso XIII. and the French President Gaston Doumergue . At that time, the main building had a length of 241 m and was the largest train station in Spain and the second largest in Europe. From July 18, 1928, there was continuous traffic between Pau and Saragossa . The expected large number of travelers, however, did not materialize for various reasons: Due to steep and curved routes (on the French side with gradients of up to 43 ‰ ), the railway line remained too slow to be able to establish itself as an alternative in international travel. In addition, the traffic was completely interrupted several times: 1936–1940 as a result of the Spanish Civil War , 1944–1948 as a result of the antagonism between Franco Spain and France and finally since 1970 when the bridge of l'Estanguet on the French side in a railway accident collapsed, no longer built and traffic was stopped. During the Second World War, the station was the main transshipment point for Nazi gold to Portugal and Spain, which was paid for raw materials such as tungsten that were essential to the war effort .

After 1948 there was no longer any long-distance traffic on the route . Planned as the central border station between Paris and Madrid, the miscalculation of the planners became obvious after the collapse of international rail traffic at the latest: A rapidly growing place with almost 700 inhabitants today faced infrastructure for several thousand travelers per day.

Today, Canfranc station is the end of two daily regional train pairs from Saragossa and the four (from July to September six) journeys of the rail replacement service from Bedous with a connection from Pau .

Railway systems

Technical facilities

Both standard-gauge tracks from France and broad-gauge tracks from Spain were introduced into the station. Passengers not only had to change to another train because of the changing gauge, customs and border controls also took place. Goods had to be reloaded. There were handling facilities for all of this: long, covered platforms with a total length of 1.2 km (platform roofs of 20,000 m²) and platform underpasses. There were warehouses for freight traffic, and only the tracks between these could be approached from both sides. Railway depots were attached to handle the vehicles ; there was a Spanish roundhouse and a French electric locomotive hall . The track system had a total length of 27 km. Canfranc is said to have been the second largest train station in Europe (after Leipzig Central Station ).

Reception building

Station forecourt

The station building was built in reinforced concrete from 1921 to 1925 by the Spanish architect Fernando Ramírez de Dampierre , who had dimensioned it for traffic on an internationally important main line . It is nearly 250 meters long, has 75 doors on each side and is committed to late eclectic historicism . The center of the building and the pavilions at the sides are emphasized by domes . The station building is parallel to the tracks, between the wide and normal gauge. Travelers should get off, complete the border formalities in the reception building and be able to get back on the next train immediately on the other side. In the building there was also a hotel, restaurants and office units for the respective Spanish and French departments of the railway, the border police and customs.

Spanish regional trains of the RENFE series 592 in Canfranc, 1985

Preservation status until 2018

After cross-border traffic was abandoned, the train station and railway facilities fell into disrepair, and equipment was looted.

In the track field there are some old wagons that have been pulled together for museum purposes, but are mostly rotting. Other railway systems have also been preserved, a crane for reloading goods, the catenary masts over the French track systems, the roundhouse and other things. The two remaining passenger trains end at a small, newly created platform on the street side, while the magnificent - and almost completely empty - reception building has remained an attraction for railway fans, photographers and historians.

Freight traffic was maintained as southern French corn is now being loaded from the truck onto the rail via the on-site silos.

Since the 1990s, there have been increasing voices calling for the reopening of the railway tunnel and the resumption of rail traffic with France. The chances of this are assessed differently.

The resumption of a continuous railway line from Pau to Canfranc is now planned. The Pau – Oloron section was always in operation and was reopened in 2011 after renovation, in June 2016 the official reopening between Oloron and Bedous took place.

Urban redesign taking into account the monument protection

At the beginning of 2013, the Aragón region bought the main building, fenced it in and first had the roof re-covered, after which the station concourse under the dome in the middle was renovated.

In mid-2018, the foundation stone for the redesign of the site was laid, in which all previous buildings are re-used and the area for the railway is limited to what is operationally necessary. The following is planned:

  • The rest of the main building will be converted into a luxury hotel, with the station concourse remaining open to the public, including for events. The tracks disappear on both sides.
  • The new passenger station is being built, now really as a through station with only three tracks, in the former goods transfer hall on the mountain side. The second of these halls will be prepared for the travel center, tourist information office, etc., two more tracks on the mountain side will remain for freight traffic.
  • The former French (electric) engine shed becomes the center for pilgrims on this section of the Camino de Santiago, while apartments are being built in the other buildings.
  • A site for the regional railway museum is being built in the former Spanish depot . The wagons for this are waiting to be refurbished in the old roundhouse and in a second tunnel tube on the Spanish side that is only ever used as a siding. If the Spanish route were to be re-tracked , the vehicles would be isolated from the rest of their network.

Trivia

There is a rumor on the Internet that Canfranc train station served as the backdrop for the film Doctor Zhivago . Some of the filming took place in Spain, but there is no evidence of Canfranc train station as a location.

The assumption that there was an encounter between Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco in Canfranc station cannot be proven either. Presumably it is a mistake with their meeting in Hendaye on October 23, 1940.

literature

  • Dieter Hamblock: Tristesse in the Pyrenees . In: Eisenbahngeschichte 40 (2010), pp. 60–67.
  • Alexander Kierdorf: "There are no more Pyrenees" - The palace train station in Canfranc, Spain. In: industrie-culture 50 (issue 1/2010), p. 14f.

Web links

Commons : Canfranc Station  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The railway settlement Canfranc Estación station was soon greater than the village Canfranc, which was also destroyed by a major fire in 1944 after the opening. Canfranc-Estación later developed into a mountain health resort and ski resort.
  2. ↑ Cordula Rabe: Spanischer Jakobsweg - 3rd edition 2007, p. 27.
  3. ↑ Gudrun Eussner: El Oro de Canfranc - Portugal, Spain and Switzerland in the glow of Nazi gold. In: Eussner.net. March 21, 2011, archived from the original on March 22, 2011 ; accessed on August 25, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Size and number of tracks correspond to the train station of a city with 100,000 inhabitants.
    End of the line sadness. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , October 19, 2017, page R4.
  5. ↑ SNCF: Pau – Bedous – Canfranc timetable July to September 2019. (No longer available online.) In: sncf.com. Formerly in the original ; accessed on July 15, 2019 (French).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / cdn.ter.sncf.com
  6. ↑ SNCF: Horaires du 30 September 2019 to 14 December 2019 Pau> Bedous. (pdf, 140 kB) In: sncf.com. June 25, 2019, accessed July 15, 2019 (French).
  7. ^ José Maria Ruiz: El Canfranc. In: tripod.com. 2001, accessed July 15, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Kierdorf, p. 14.
  9. ↑ Rather optimistic: Hamblock; rather pessimistic: Kierdorf.
  10. ^ Oloron – Bedous Le train revient! at ter.sncf.com, accessed January 3, 2017
  11. ↑ Laura Zamborain: Canfranc coloca la primera piedra de su futuro en un día histórico. In: Pirinews. June 27, 2018, accessed July 15, 2019 (Spanish). Presentación proyecto de la Estación Internacional de Canfranc. In: zaragozabuenasnoticias.com. May 5, 2016, Retrieved July 15, 2019 (Spanish).
  12. ↑ Nueva Estación Canfranc. AMO 3D Visual, accessed on August 25, 2019 (English, Spanish, pictures and models of the new reception building on the website of the architecture office).
  13. ↑ Pedro Zapater Zaragoza: Un Escenario de Película: ¿Se rodó 'Doctor Zhivago' en la estación de Canfranc? In: Heraldo de Aragón. June 30, 2012, archived from the original on December 18, 2018 ; Retrieved December 17, 2018 (Spanish).

Coordinates: 42 ° 45 ′ 5 "  N , 0 ° 30 ′ 53"  W.