The Figeac – Arvant railway is a single-track , 170 km long, non-electrified railway line in central France. It establishes a west-east connection between two important north-south highways, the Brive-la-Gaillarde – Toulouse-Matabiau railway in the west and the Cevennes Railway.
history
Le Lioran station, view from the nearby tunnel portal, 2005
The route was built from east to west and began at the Arvant junction coming from Clermont-Ferrand . In 1853, the Compagnie du chemin de fer grand central de France around the Duke of Morny, Charles de Morny, was looking for a license for the construction and operation of the line and was part of an extensive package of lines that should extend from Bordeaux to Lyon . But after just three years, the company was dissolved due to financial difficulties. The line came with a few others to the competing company Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans , which they were able to gradually put into operation from 1861 to 1868. In the Arvant station there was a transition to the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée .
The sparsely populated area in the Massif Central is characterized by topographical challenges for railway construction. Numerous bridges and long tunnels alternate. The central structure is the 1959 meter long tunnel du Lioran , which is built as a continuous ramp of 24 ‰ from its entrance portal on the Saint-Jacques side at a height of 1105.50 m to its exit portal on the Lioran side at 1151.50 m has been. It took only three years to build and for a long time it was considered the longest tunnel in France. The vault consists of 0.60 m thick granite gravel. The engineer of this various record-breaking tunnel was the German Wilhelm Nördlinger , the contractor Jean Tersouly (1817-1892). Two workers were killed during renovation work in the summer of 2012. In addition to the railway tunnel, there are two road tunnels with the same name, one with the N 102 in use today and its predecessor with a significantly smaller cross-section.
Driving operation
All trains only run to or from Aurillac , as the TER Occitanie is responsible for the section from / to Toulouse and the TER Auvergne is responsible for the section from / to Clermont-Ferrand . The connections there are not harmonized. TER Occitanie offers three connections in each direction on weekdays, while TER Auvergne offers five train pairs Aurillac – Clermont-Ferrand as well as individual journeys on partial routes. In addition, both companies offer individual intercity bus trips.
