Saint-Auban – Digne railway line

Saint-Auban-Digne
Digne SNCF station with standard gauge (left; X 2720 series ) and CP narrow-gauge railcars on the common platform, 1982
Route number :	920,000
Route length:	22 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Marseille 306.9 Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban train station 423 m to Lyon Durance Canal d'Oraison 310.6 Malijai 429 m Duyes 319.4 Mallemoisson 508 m 321.3 Aiglun 524 m Ravin du Rouveiret CP of Nice 328.9 Digne-les-Bains 596 m

The Saint-Auban – Digne railway connected the French city ​​of Digne (since 1988: Digne-les-Bains) with the Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban station (until around 1980: Saint-Auban) on the Ligne des Alpes ( Lyon railway line) –Grenoble – Marseille ).

The standard-gauge branch line was 22 km long, single-track and not electrified. She pointed four intermediate holding on, led to a 148 m long girder bridge over the Durance and crossed in a 84 m long tunnel to the 1959 to 1962 built irrigation canal Canal d'Oraison . In Digne, the terminus of the narrow-gauge railway from Nice was in the immediate vicinity .

History, description and traffic

Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban train station and chemical plant, 2013

On January 22nd, 1868, an imperial decree established that a railway connection from Digne to the railway line from Avignon to Gap was not for profit . This paved the way for a railway connection to the city. After the railway had reached Sisteron from the south on November 25, 1872 , its operator, the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM), opened the branch line to Digne on November 27, 1876. For this purpose, the Saint-Auban separation station was built that year on the territory of the commune of Château-Arnoux , which was located away from localities and had no local significance. It had a central platform next to the main platform , which was partially covered in 1887 due to the often long waiting times of the transferring passengers.

The Digne terminus did not have any other platforms besides the house platform. On the opposite side of the station forecourt, the station of the meter-gauge railway to Mézel , the nucleus of today's Nice – Digne-les-Bains railway, was built until 1891 . It was opened on August 31, 1891, but the entire route to Nice could only be used continuously on July 3, 1911.

The line was initially operated as a connecting railway with passenger and mixed trains , there were no continuous passenger trains beyond Saint-Auban. The fleet of cars pulled by steam locomotives was diverse, and passenger cars from the time of the Second Empire were still in service in the 1920s . In the summer season 1935 (July 1st to September 20th) a direct connection between Digne and Grenoble was established. Were used rubber tires Micheline - railcars of type 21, from the following year (15 May to 1 October 1936) then DMUs - possibly with sidecar - from Decauville (PLM Series P 1-9 "Nez de cochon"). With the outbreak of war in 1939, this daily pair of trains was discontinued.

On April 30, 1945, the Chemins de fer de Provence (CP), which had operated the narrow-gauge line since 1925, proposed the laying of a third rail between Digne and Saint-Auban for the first time . The CP would take over the freight traffic and local traffic, for the SNCF they planned a railcar connection from Digne to Marseille without changing trains . This move, like a second one five years later, had no consequences. In the summer of 1946, however, the SNCF reactivated the trains to and from Grenoble, which ran all year round from then on. The Decauville railcars were used again for this pair of trains, now under the series designation XDC 2000 . In 1949, a CP track was relocated to the SNCF platform in Digne, which made it easier and faster for passengers to change trains between the two- gauge trains .

In the post-war period, more and more Swiss tourists took the train via Grenoble and Digne to the Côte d'Azur . From around 1950 the SNCF therefore used larger and more modern railcars such as the Somua XS and the diesel-electric XDC 2100 . Between June 15 and September 30, 1953, the railcars between Digne and Grenoble were experimentally replaced by coaches that ran beyond Grenoble to Geneva . Instead, railcars ran for the first time in this relationship from June 18, 1954, with new vehicles from the X 2400 series being used. These express trains ran - only during the summer - in addition to the railcars to and from Grenoble.

On the way back to Switzerland, the passengers had a one-hour stop at noon when changing trains in Digne in order to be able to dine in the local train station restaurant. However, four minutes of scheduled transfer time in the opposite direction turned out to be too tight.

Freight transshipment hall standard / narrow gauge in Digne, 1986

In 1955, the CP received a second stub track on a narrow platform on the SNCF site . In that year, the SNCF first considered moving passenger traffic between Digne and Saint-Auban - with the exception of railcars to Grenoble and Geneva - to the road. The line was once again threatened with closure in 1958/59, as the state sought to abandon the narrow-gauge railway to Nice. The affected citizens and communities were able to enforce the preservation of the latter and thus also saved the route to Saint-Auban for the time being.

To replace the steam locomotives, diesel locomotives of various series such as BB 63000 , BB 66000 and BB 67000 , and “Picasso” X 3800 multiple units for local passenger transport, were put on the line. For the seasonal traffic to and from Geneva in 1959 and in the following fifteen years panorama multiple units of the type X 4200 were used. They drove with one or more "standard sidecars", between Digne and Saint-Auban also in association with an X 3800. The series X 2800 and X 52000 (former XDC 2000) ran inland to Grenoble and possibly even further to Lyon .

In 1965, a new study recommended the construction of a third rail in order to be able to lead the narrow-gauge trains to Saint-Auban. However, the following year the state decided not to fund this measure. In February 1968, on the occasion of the Winter Olympics in Grenoble, a daily special pair of trains with X-4200 multiple units was set up for a period of twelve days . From the 1969 summer season, panorama railcars continued to run to Geneva, but they came in the opposite direction from Valence .

Local passenger traffic on the route was suspended on March 6, 1972. Up until then, three to five pairs of trains, most recently with “Picassos”, had ensured the connection between Dignes and the trains on the Marseille– Veynes route . Inspired by the example of the Catalan Talgo , consideration was given to developing re- gaugable railcars that could have passed through from Geneva via Digne to Nice. In the winter of 1972/73, the railcars, which had been in service to Grenoble all year round, only ran to Veynes outside of the school holidays. In the following year, they were replaced by the X 4500 series , which again drove through to Grenoble. From 1974 the panorama railcars to and from Geneva ran in both directions again, with a one-hour lunch stop in Grenoble to visit a restaurant. Soon after, the aging X 4200 were also replaced by the X 4500. In the summer of 1976, the traffic from Geneva was again broken for two months, the passengers came from Switzerland to Grenoble in a ETG - Gasturbinenzug .

In March 1978, the operator of the CP, the Société des Chemins de Fer et Transports Automobiles (CFTA), tried again to take over the route, again without success. In the summer timetable of that year, the CP transformed the narrow-gauge express railcar connection into an ordinary passenger train, which increased the travel time between Nice and Grenoble by an hour. On September 27, 1980, the year-round direct connection to Grenoble was discontinued, from now on the direct railcars only operated in the summer season.

Alpazur

Two trains of the Alpazur in Digne: on the left a modernized SNCF X 2720 , on the right the X 351 of the CP

Already in the early 1960s, the type ABH1 narrow-gauge railcars , which followed the trains from Grenoble as express trains from Digne to Nice, had the letters ALPES AZUR on the radiator grille. For better marketing, the connection from Geneva via Digne to Nice was given the designation "Alpazur" on June 2, 1981, and the trains of both railway administrations were labeled accordingly. From then on, the SNCF used RGP1 ​​railcars ( X 2720 series ) including control car (with bar compartment) - in double traction in the main season. On June 13th, the first Alpazur left Digne heading north. During the main season, narrators, musicians and artists entertained passengers on the train. Hostesses pointed out tourist and historical facts, reserved hotel rooms by radio on request and ordered Luch packages at Digne station. In the first season, 18,473 passengers were counted, of which 17,580 changed between the two railways in Digne. Later, RGP2 railcars ( X 2700 series ) were also converted for these services.

The success of the Alpazur encouraged the SNCF to offer a similar connection in winter too. From December 17, 1982 to April 18, 1983, the "Alpaneige" ran two to three times a week between Digne and Grenoble. It was not retained due to insufficient passenger numbers. In June 1984 the Alpazur ran again only from / to Grenoble, from July 1st to September 2nd from Lyon-Part-Dieu with a connection to a TGV from Paris . The train, which consisted of two units, was winged at Saint-Auban station, with one railcar (including control car) continuing to Digne or via Aix-en-Provence to Marseille.

Since the route from Lyon to Grenoble was electrified in 1984 and thus TGV trains could be run to Grenoble, the Alpazur was taken back to the Grenoble – Digne route in 1985. In the course of the modernization of the RGP1 ​​units, there was no longer any possibility of transition on the control car side of coupled trains. As a result, passengers to and from Digne had to forego the entertainment and bar, which are only offered on the part of the train going to Marseille .

End and outlook

CP narrow-gauge railcars and overgrown track systems of the SNCF in Digne, 2009

In recent years, occasionally special trains were on the track, so in September 1989, one of two BB 67400 drawn pilgrimage with four-axle coaches to Lourdes . With the X 4208 from the Agrivap association, another panorama railcar came to Digne in 1988.

On August 7, 1987, the Minister of the Environment and Mayor of Grenoble Alain Carignon toured the route and confirmed the will of the conservative government to preserve the Alpazur. In the summer of 1988, however, the train part to Marseille was canceled and the transfer times were extended. The travel time to Nice via Lyon and Avignon , however, was shortened. On September 24, 1988, the last freight train ran between Digne and Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban, four days later the flagged X 2744 railcar left the Digne SNCF station for Grenoble.

Contrary to expectations, the Alpazur was resumed on May 28, 1989. The travel times of up to 8:41 hours (Grenoble – Nice; compared to 6:10 hours 1974/75) were too long, however, and the use of gas turbine trains that had been considered eight years earlier - and even announced in the current timetable - was not implemented. Again it was the X 2744, which on September 23, 1989 was the last regular passenger train to travel the route.

In May 1990, a pilgrimage lasted from Digne to Lourdes. The line was officially closed on May 22, 1991, but it was not dismantled and is to be maintained in the long term. In 1991 and 1999 even two new bridges were built over roads, and on January 17, 2000, a small locomotive with two ballast wagons drove the track to Digne. In autumn 2009 the spreading vegetation was completely removed in order to facilitate the assessment of a possible reopening. This time, too, several options were considered: keeping the standard gauge track, creating a three-rail track, changing gauges to meter gauge, taking over and operating it by the CP ...

The safety area around the dangerous goods tanks at the chemical plant in Saint-Auban has meanwhile moved too close to the route. In addition, a reactivation of the “Alpazur” concept is no longer planned, which means that the aspect of supra-regional through traffic would no longer apply.

Train stations

With the abandonment of local passenger transport on the route, the intermediate stations were closed on March 6, 1972.

• Saint-Auban (since the 1980s: Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban): three passenger tracks at the house and a central platform; the house platform could not be approached directly from Digne; In 1916 a chemical factory was built in the immediate vicinity, initially producing chlorine for chemical weapons
• Malijai: Stop with a bricked, two-story entrance building and loading platform
• Mallemoisson: two-track crossing station, second track dismantled after the closure
• Aiglun: stop
• Champtercier
• Digne (-les-Bains)

Remarks

1. ↑ In the opposite direction (only in 1954) the trains stopped in Grenoble for an hour for this purpose
2. ↑ travelers from Geneva had henceforth to Grenoble the Catalan Talgo Geneva- Barcelona use
3. ↑ tilt = snow

Web links

Commons : Saint-Auban – Digne railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

• José Banaudo: Sur les voies de l'Alpazur. L'histoire de la liaison Nice – Grenoble – Genève par la ligne des Alpes . Les Editions du Cabri, Breil-sur-Roya 2012, ISBN 978-2-914603-56-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} José Banaudo: Sur les voies de l'Alpazur. L'histoire de la liaison Nice – Grenoble – Genève par la ligne des Alpes . Les Editions du Cabri, Breil-sur-Roya 2012, ISBN 978-2-914603-56-0 , p. 109 .
2. ↑ Déclaration d'utilité publique at gallica.bnf.fr, accessed on January 31, 2018
3. ↑ ^{a b} José Banaudo: op.cit . , P. 6 f.
4. ↑ ^{a b} José Banaudo: op.cit . , P. 12.
5. ↑ ^{a b} José Banaudo: op.cit . , P. 21.
6. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 18 f.
7. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 24 f.
8. ↑ ^{a b} José Banaudo: op.cit . , P. 28.
9. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 32 ff.
10. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 43.
11. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 50 f.
12. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 56 ff.
13. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 66.
14. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 58.
15. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 67.
16. ↑ ^{a b} José Banaudo: op.cit . , P. 71.
17. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 75.
18. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 46 f.
19. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 91 ff.
20. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 76 f.
21. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 93 f.
22. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 96 f.
23. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 103.
24. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 119.
25. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 120.
26. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 122.
27. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 68 u. 85.
28. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 72.
29. ↑ José Banaudo: op. Cit. , P. 83.