Saint-Gingolph – Saint-Maurice railway line
| Saint-Gingolph-Saint-Maurice | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Domino between Les Paluds and Massongex
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| Timetable field : | 130 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 26.75 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route class : | D3 (Saint-Maurice – Monthey) C3 (Monthey – Saint-Gingolph) |
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| Power system : | 15 kV 16.7 Hz ~ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 15 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Saint-Gingolph – Saint-Maurice railway is a railway line in Switzerland . It was opened by Ligne d'Italie on July 14, 1859 . It connects Le Bouveret, on Lake Geneva , with Saint-Maurice . The route to the border between France and Switzerland at Saint-Gingolph was only opened on June 1, 1886 , together with its continuation towards Évian-les-Bains . The line is also known as the Tonkin Line , together with the French line to Évian . It is the first railway line in the Swiss canton of Valais . Before Saint-Maurice, a 691 meter long tunnel had to be built, which is the only larger structure on the line (the tunnel was shortened to 490 meters during the double-track expansion in 1906).
history
As early as 1852 a concession was entered for a line from Villeneuve to Aosta. This did not come about, among other things, because the canton of Valais required two connecting routes, one between Martigny and Sitten and one between Illersaz and Le Bouveret. On the other hand, Le Bouveret's application for Sion, submitted a year later, was successful and received the federal concession. The line was planned as an international transit route, but was never operated in this function. This was also due to the fact that its continuation, the Saint-Gingolph – Évian railway, was only opened in 1886 and thus only after the Lausanne – Brig line opened. The line on French soil was built by the Paris – Lyon – Méditeranée (PLM). Passenger traffic between Évian-les-Bains and Saint-Gingolph was stopped as early as 1937. Freight traffic on the route gained momentum during the Second World War , as it was the only railway crossing into Switzerland that was not directly subordinate to the Axis powers. Then it went back to insignificance, so that in 1988 all traffic on the French side was stopped. As of this year, traffic has only been directed towards Saint-Maurice. The line between Saint-Maurice and Collombey was electrified in 1946, the remaining line to Saint-Gingolph in 1954.
traffic
Passenger traffic is limited to the hourly regional trains that are operated by the Regionalps . These are running again increasingly after it was one of the few routes in Switzerland with a two-hour timetable in the 1990s. The regional trains already end in Bouveret, but run via Saint-Maurice to Brig. The route between Bouveret and Saint-Gingolph is only served by trains in the morning, noon and evening. The rest of the time, the connection is made by a bus with a slim rail connection.
Various sidings in Monthey and Collombey ensure daily freight traffic towards Saint-Maurice. In addition to the sidings (Losinger, Givo., CABV, AGIP), only the Monthey station in the basic network is still open for single wagon load traffic. Bouveret is still open as a service point for customer solutions, but is currently very rarely used. This is why there is no daily freight traffic between Saint-Gingolph and Monthey.
literature
- Marcel Broennle, Xavier Lambercy: Le 150 e anniversaire de la ligne du Tonkin . In: Railway amateur . August 2009, ISSN 0013-2764 .