Annecy – Albertville railway line

Annecy – Albertville
Route number (SNCF) :	898,000
Route length:	45.35 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	20  ‰
Legend from Annemasse 0.00 Annecy 449  m 0.57 to Aix-les-Bains 1.70 Connection ZI de Vovray 2.36 Tunnel de la Puya (1526 m) 3.89 6.4_ Sévrier 448  m 9.9_ Saint-Jorioz 458  m 12.8_ Duingt 455  m Duingt Tunnel (188 m) 15.27 Brédannaz 15.32 Connection Bozel-Malétra 16.90 Lathuile 449  m 19.13 Doussard 467  m 21.91 Giez 465  m 25.35 Faverges 504  m Viaduc sur le torrent de la ( Chaise , 25 m) 29.54 Marlens 452  m 31.21 Departmental border Haute-Savoie / Savoie 33.87 Connection to Les Fils de Jules Bianco 35.60 End of the route with a buffer stop 36.20 Ugine 411  m Viaduc ( chaise , 24 m) Connection Ugitech 39.65 Marthod 380  m Tunnel d'Albertville (646 m) 45.35 Albertville 338  m to Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Saint-Pierre-d'Albigny

The railway Annecy-Albertville is still partially preserved standard gauge railway line in the French department of Haute-Savoie and Savoie in the region of Auvergne Rhône-Alpes . The line was never electrified and belongs to the state rail infrastructure company SNCF Réseau .

history

The project for a railway line between Annecy and Albertville was first proposed in 1856, and on August 15, 1857, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia passed a law for the construction of a corresponding line by the Victor-Emmanuel Railway Company . The project was delayed, however, due to the outbreak of the Sardinian War in 1859 and the reconnection of Savoy to France in 1860, negotiated in the Treaty of Turin . In 1863, France released the company from its obligation to build the line.

A law of July 17, 1879, which provided for the construction of 181 railway lines of public interest, listed the Albertville – Annecy line under number 126. The déclaration d'utilité publique (declaration of public benefit) required in France took place on August 21, 1882, the license to the Compagnie Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM) on August 2, 1886. Work did not begin until July 1897; on June 3, 1901, the single-track line was inaugurated.

Passenger traffic on the route was discontinued in May 1938; For the time being, the route remained continuous for freight traffic. In April 1953, the section between Saint-Jorioz and the siding of the Bozel-Malétra company in Brédannaz was also closed to freight traffic; the first section of the line was closed in February 1964. In August 1966 the section between the industrial area of ​​Annecy and Saint-Jorioz was closed to freight traffic; the closure of this section with abandonment of the Puya tunnel took place in July 1969. At the end of October 1970, the remainder of the route to the Puya tunnel in the Rue de la Cité was also closed from kilometer 1.70, the branch of the Vovray siding.

There are no more precise data on the dismantling of the line; the old railway line between Sévrier and Brédannaz was probably opened as a cycle path around 1974.

In January 1989 the section from the siding of the company Les Fils de Jules Bianco (kilometer 33.87) to the former siding of the Bozel-Malétra (kilometer 15.32) was closed to freight traffic. A good 10 years later, on May 20, 1999, the section between Ugine and the former siding of the Fils de Jules Bianco was finally closed to freight traffic. On the same date, the section between Brédannaz and the departmental border between Haute-Savoie and Savoie was finally closed at kilometer 31.21.

Between Doussard and Giez the superstructure was removed around 2000, between Giez and Ugine around 2004 and 2005. In the Haute-Savoie department, the continuous railway cycle path Voie verte du lac d'Annecy was created , which was connected to Annecy in the north in 2004; the southern part between Doussard and Marlens was built between 2005 and 2007.

The almost two kilometer long section in Annecy served as a siding for the Vovray industrial area, where the Dépot Pétrolier de Haute-Savoie oil depot of the Raffinerie du Midi was located at the time. The service was discontinued in 2008 and the route closed to freight traffic. As of September 2017, the route was largely preserved, although the superstructure had already been partially removed.

business

From Albertville there are around ten kilometers of the route to Ugine and are open to freight traffic. As of 2014, the track system ended in the direction of Annecy around 450 meters after the reception building of the Ugine train station at a buffer stop; the following former route was converted into a cycle path. A good kilometer before the Ugine train station, on the other hand, is the junction of the siding of the most important freight customer on the route, the extensive steelworks of the Ugitech Group, which is now part of the Schmolz + Bickenbach foundry group.

Contemporary witnesses

Tunnel at Duingt

In Brédannaz , the "1911" locomotive has been erected as a memorial next to the renovated former station or guard house on a piece of track next to the cycle path.

The tunnel near Duingt is part of the railway cycle path and as such is asphalted and illuminated. The tunnel de la Puya exists and is inaccessible with gates; Among other things, the new use for a relief road, a light rail or a Metrobus system was and is discussed.

The entire former route from the east portal of the Tunnel de la Puya in Beau Rivage (municipality of Sévrier) to the buffer stop in Ugine can be traced through its use as a railway cycle path . There are minor deviations at former level crossings, which have meanwhile been expanded into roundabouts, as well as at individual former station parcels. There are also a few former railway buildings.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Ligne d'Annecy à Albertville. In: Histoire de lignes oubliées… Accessed January 24, 2019 (French). 
2. ↑ Histoire de la Voie férrée Annecy Faverges Albertville. Retrieved January 25, 2019 (French). 
3. ↑ Translated from French Wikipedia article on the Voie verte du lac d'Annecy
4. ↑ Google Maps, Google Street View (photos as of September 2016, September 2017, October 2017); Retrieved January 25, 2019
5. ↑ Aire de pique-nique Bredannaz . Retrieved January 25, 2019 (French).
6. ↑ La commune de Lathuile demande officiellement la mise en oeuvre d'un BHNS efficace. Retrieved January 25, 2019 (French).