Collonges – Divonne-les-Bains railway line

Collonges – Divonne-les-Bains (border)
Route map
Route number (SNCF) :	891 000
Course book route (SNCF) :	516
Route length:	42 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	24  ‰
Legend Lyon – Geneva line from Lyon 142.5 Fort-l'Écluse - Collonges 356  m Lyon – Geneva line to Geneva 143.2 Viaduc d'Almogne (105 m) 144.0 Tunnel des Iles (152 m) 145.1 Pont du Grand Echaud (126 m) 145.3 Tunnel du Grand Echaud (259 m) 146.0 Paradis 150.0 Péron - Farges 512  m 150.9 Pont de l'Anna (77 m) 153.4 Sous-Peyron 155.0 Saint-Jean-de-Gonville 499  m 156.7 Fénières 479  m 158.1 Thoiry 471  m 159.4 Allemogne 469  m 161.5 Sergy - Saint-Genis 456  m 163.5 Connection "ZA Crozet" 164.8 Fleece 165.7 Chevry 488  m 169.2 Échenevex 529  m 171.5 Cessy 172.3 Gex 589  m 175.5 Tutegny 530  m 177.4 Grilly 515  m 179.4 Arbère 492  m 180.4 Divonne-les-Bains 483  m 182.7 Vésenex 183.6 6.0 France - Switzerland border Nyon – Crassier route to Nyon

The Collonges – Divonne-les-Bains line is a French branch line that connected Collonges with Divonne-les-Bains . Commissioning took place on June 1, 1899. There are currently no trains running on the route. From Divonne, the Nyon – Crassier railway continued to Nyon in Switzerland .

history

The law of July 17, 1879 ( Freycinet Plan), which provided for the construction of 181 railway lines, contains as No. 121 the line to Gex and Divonne branching off the Lyon – Geneva line .

The "Déclaration d'utilité publique" of the railway line from Collonges to Divonne took place on January 7, 1881. The concession was granted on August 2, 1886 to the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM). The line was opened by the PLM on June 1, 1899.

The connection with the Nyon – Crassier railway , for which PLM was granted the concession, was declared non-profit on July 24, 1903. This 3 km long section to Nyon went into operation on November 3, 1905. An international agreement, which was signed on December 16, 1908, regulated operations on the cross-border route. The route to Nyon had to be closed to all traffic on September 29, 1962 because it stood in the way of the construction of the A1 motorway .

From the 1960s, X 3800 diesel multiple units were used for passenger transport . In 1979 only 42,000 passengers were using the train. As a result, passenger traffic to Divonne-les-Bains was stopped on May 31, 1980 and a parallel bus line was set up.

Freight train on the bridge over the D884 (2011)

The last freight train to Divonne ran around 1985. In 1990 the track was interrupted shortly after Gex and the Gex – Divonne section was impassable. In 1998 the last freight train reached Gex station . The Chevry –Gex section was closed to all train traffic in 1999. At the beginning of the 21st century, some cars were driven to Gex for a fire department museum.

Since then, freight trains have been running up to the Crozet connection , bringing household waste from there to Bellegarde . This traffic was provided by the SNCF and locomotives of the series BB 67300 and BB 75000 were used . This traffic had to be stopped on April 30, 2014, because according to information from Réseau Ferré de France (RFF), the maintenance of the route is too expensive. Most recently, 80 to 100 tons of garbage were transported on the route every day. Modernization work worth 10 million euros would have been necessary.

Current condition

Most of the section from Collonges to Crozet is still preserved but in poor condition. The dismantling of the rails and sleepers began in spring 2019 between level crossings 15 and 16 on the section between Saint-Jean-de-Gonville and Fénières. In Chevry a buffer stop blocks the rest of the route and in some places the tracks have been removed when the road is being renewed. The stretch from Chevry to Divonne is overgrown. Shortly before the Gex train station, the bridge over the D1005 was lifted from its abutments and placed on the tracks.

future

An association is trying to reactivate the route. Different variants are proposed: one of them provides for the integration of the route into the Geneva S-Bahn network . To this end, a new line is to be built between Sergy and Meyrin .

Web links

Commons : Collonges – Divonne-les-Bains railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Description of the route (French)
• Ligne de Fort-L'Ecluse-Collonges à Divonne-les-Bains (frontière) on lignes-oubliees.com (French)
• Photos of the route (French)
• Initiative to reactivate the route (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ N ° 8168 - Loi qui classe 181 lignes de chemin de fer dans le réseau des chemins de fer d'intérêt general . In: Bulletin des lois de la République Française . tape 19 , no. 456 . Paris 1879, p. 6-12 ( online ).
2. ↑ Ligne de Fort-L'Ecluse-Collonges à Divonne-les-Bains (frontière) on lignes-oubliees.com
3. ↑ N ° 43636 - Loi qui déclare d'utilité publique, à titre d'intérêt général, l'établissement du chemin de fer de Divonne-les-Bains à la frontière suisse, vers Crassier: 24 juillet 1903 . In: Bulletin des lois de la République Française . tape 67 , no. 2482 . Paris 1903, p. 691-692 ( online ).
4. ↑ ^{a b} Michel Dehanne, Daniel Croset, Michel Grandguillaume: Voies normales privées du pays de Vaud . BVA, Lausanne 1997, ISBN 2-88125-010-6 , pp. 20 .
5. ↑ N ° 969 - Décret portant promulgation de deux conventions signées à Paris, le 16 December 1908, entre la France et la Suisse . In: Bulletin des lois de la République Française . tape 1 , no. 22 . Paris 1909, p. 2109-2113 ( online ).
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Information about the route at geillon.pagesperso-orange.fr, accessed on November 3, 2013
7. ↑ Le Dauphiné Libéré: Les ordures du Pays de Gex from t passer du train aux camions , April 28, 2014, accessed on August 4, 2014
8. ↑ RFF divise par deux l'effort sur les lignes capillaires fret en 2013 , November 18, 2013 on wk-transport-logistique.fr, accessed on August 4, 2014
9. ^ Association pour la Promotion du Rail dans le Pays de Gex , accessed on August 4, 2014