Bordeaux – Sète railway line
The Bordeaux – Sète railway is an important French railway line . It runs from the Atlantic port of Bordeaux to Sète on the Mediterranean Sea and is 474 kilometers long. The cities of Agen , Montauban , Toulouse , Carcassonne and Narbonne are connected, and there are connections to other cities on the Mediterranean Sea and to Spain .
History and description
Opened the route of the railway company Chemins de fer du Midi et du Canal latéral à la Garonne (Midi) in the years 1855 to 1857, who had received the concession for the construction and operation on 24 August. 1852 On May 31, 1855, the first, 42 km long section from Bordeaux to Langon went into operation, on December 4 of that year the 54 km long extension to Tonneins . Valence d'Agen (65 km) was reached on May 29, 1856, Toulouse (96 km) the following August 30. From April 22, 1857 it was possible to drive to Sète (spelling at the time: Cette; 219 km).
The kilometrage ends at km 474.4 in the urban area of Sète at the interface of the former railway companies Midi and Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM). Sète station is in the PLM area at km 104.5 of the Tarascon – Sète-Ville railway , approx. 150 m north of this point. The second track was laid on the entire route by 1865 and the automatic route block was installed before 1914 . In the 1930s, the banjo block system used between Bordeaux and Langon was replaced by a route block with light signals (Block automatique lumineux (BAL)), and in 1946 the Paul-et-Ducousso block system between Langon and Montauban was replaced by a telephone reporting procedure. From 1957, the last-named section was initially secured by the manuel uniformisé block and, from 1979/80, by the BAL .
The electrification with 1500 V direct current took place in two stages, in 1935 the section from Montauban to Sète and in 1980 the section from Bordeaux to Montauban. Since then, the top speed has been 160 km / h, sometimes even below that.
One of the noteworthy engineering structures is the 631 m long viaduct with 32 arches over the high water bed of the Garonne near Saint-Macaire near Langon. On September 24, 1905, there was an accident there after a clutch broke. 32 freight wagons were moving towards the train following two minutes later, the locomotive of which fell after the impact, killing the driver . In Sète, the Canal Royal is crossed on the Pont Maréchal Foch bascule bridge . The longest of the six tunnels is the 419 m long tunnel de Berriac at km 352.0 near Trèbes .
In 1989 the bridge over the Lot near Aiguillon was replaced by a new building, and from 1996-1998 the 210 m long bridge over the Garonne near Langon .
Agen train station
Carcassonne train station
The Pont Maréchal Foch railway bascule bridge in Sète is open
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outlook
There are plans to increase the speed limit in the Bordeaux – Toulouse section to 200 km / h in order to shorten the travel time between Paris and Toulouse.
