Chemins de fer de Provence

Lines of the SF and the TAM 1928

The Chemins de fer de Provence (CP / CP) was a railway company that existed from 1925 to 1972. Your logo was retained by the successor company CFTA . Its meter-gauge route network connected the towns of Nice and Meyrargues, Nice and Digne-les-Bains , Saint-Raphaël and Toulon as well as Cogolin and Saint-Tropez in the southern French departments of Alpes-Maritimes , Var , Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Bouches-du -Rhône . Today, of the four lines built, the line from Nice (French: Nice) to Digne-les-Bains (before 1988: Digne) in southern France is still in operation. It is also known as the Train des Pignes ( German : Pine cone) . This name was originally used for the line from Nice to Meyrargues, which was closed in 1950 . The routes Saint-Raphaël – Toulon and Cogolin – Saint-Tropez were also called Le Macaron .

history

Former Gare du Sud terminus on the Nice – Digne railway line in Nice, 1982

Old narrow-gauge station in Digne
(on the left in the background a railcar on the new platform), 1986

In 1860 the county of Nice was annexed to France . Four years later , a standard-gauge line operated by the PLM railway company reached Nice from Marseille . It hardly touched the hinterland, however, and an interruption in 1872 made a second connection seem important for military reasons.

The Freycinet Plan of 1879 saw the construction of numerous lines of local importance across France. This also included the following connections:

from Digne via Castellane to Draguignan with connection to the PLM route (115 km)
Railway line Meyrargues – Nice with the two sections
- from Draguignan to Cagnes via Grasse (88 km)
- from Draguignan to Mirabeau ( changed to Meyrargues when planning ) via Barjols (110 km)
and from Nice to Puget-Théniers (56 km)

Instead of the connection from Digne to Draguignan, connections from Nice to Grasse via Vence and from Digne to Puget-Théniers were approved in 1881 , so that a 150 km long continuous connection between Nice and Digne became possible.

The PLM started construction from Digne, but stopped work in 1884. The then founded Compagnie des chemins de fer du Sud de la France (SF / SF) took over the construction of the lines on a reduced scale. After construction began in 1887, the lines were put into operation in sections, so that a network of more than 450 km total length was created, which was supplemented by branch lines of the Tramways des Alpes-Maritimes (TAM) into the side valleys of the Var. Three routes were implemented by 1911:

from Nice to Digne via Puget-Théniers (Ligne du Nord , 150 kilometers)
from Nice to Meyrargues via Grasse and Draguignan (Ligne Central-Var , 210 kilometers)
from Toulon to Saint-Raphaël (Ligne du Littoral , 100 kilometers) with a branch line from Cogolin to Saint-Tropez (10 kilometers)

There were also several connecting routes of the Tramways des Alpes-Maritimes (TAM) in the side valleys of the Var river . In view of the difficult topographical conditions, the meter gauge was chosen as the gauge to enable tight curves . The final stop in Nice was the Gare du Sud , 400 meters from the PLM train station. The listed glass wall of the building comes from the Russian pavilion of the 1889 World's Fair . In 1899 a connecting track was laid across the city between the two stations, but this was reserved for freight traffic. Until 1939, CP freight trains could also use the tram tracks to reach the port of Nice. In this way, the power station of the Energie électrique du Littoral méditerranéen was supplied with coal, the obstruction of urban traffic put an end to this.

Obligation of 500 francs from the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer de la Provence dated July 9, 1929

The collapse of the Panama Canal company Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique triggered one of the greatest financial scandals of the 19th century in France in 1888. As a result, the Vice President of the SF committed suicide in 1894; the charges against the director also involved brought the SF to its creditworthiness. Due to increasing financial problems, a new contract was negotiated with the state and in 1925 the Compagnie des Chemins de fer de (la) Provence (CP) was founded. It initially took over all the routes, but in 1933 gave up the Nice – Digne and Nice – Meyrargues routes due to growing financial problems. These were operated by the Ponts et Chaussées under state administration ; the only remaining camp site was the coastal route Saint-Raphaël - Toulon.

Shortly before the Second World War , the beginning of the replacement of steam trains by railcars (on the Nice-Digne route only in 1935) gave the routes an upswing. The war, especially the liberation struggle in the Alpes-Maritimes department , caused severe damage to infrastructure and rolling stock. From 1945 the Nice – Meyrargues line was only operated between Meyrargues and Tanneron and was finally closed in early 1950. The coastal line had already been abandoned in 1948/49, both lines were dismantled.

In 1952 the state lifted the compulsory administration and the route from Nice to Digne was placed under the "provisional administration" of the CP. As early as 1959, however, he demanded "drastic" measures for redevelopment and repeated the threats to recruit in 1967 and 1968. The cities of Digne and Nice, the two departments of Alpes-Maritimes and Var and the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur-Corse then founded the in 1968 Syndicat mixed Méditerranée-Alpes (SYMA). In 1972 he was given operating rights for 99 years; In 1974 the management was passed on to the Société générale de chemins de fer et de transports automobiles (CFTA) and in 2014 it was taken over by the Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA). Regular freight traffic was discontinued in 1977, but freight trains continued to run as required.

stretch

Meyrargues - Nice (210 km)

Viaduct over the Loup (before 1944)

from	to	Section opened on
Meyrargues	Draguignan	March 22, 1889
Draguignan	Grasse	October 25, 1890
Grasse	Colomars	June 7, 1892
Colomars	Nice	June 2, 1892

This route was first known as the Train des Pignes . On August 24, 1944, the German army destroyed the three main viaducts on the section in the Alpes-Maritimes department. From 1945 this line was therefore only operated between Meyrargues and Tanneron and was completely shut down in 1950.

Nice - Digne (150 km)

Viaduc de Moriez (2013)

New terminus Gare de Nice CP in Nice, 2006

from	to	Section opened on
Nice	Colomars	June 2, 1892
Colomars	Puget-Théniers	August 8, 1892
Pugét-Théniers	Saint-André-les-Alpes	July 3, 1911
Saint-André-les-Alpes	Digne-les-Bains	May 15, 1892

Until 1911, the Pugét-Théniers-Saint-André-les-Alpes section was still served by carriages. The trip took 6.5 hours.

This route is the only one in the former network that is still in operation. It belongs to the French state, but not to the state operator of the French Réseau ferré de France (RFF) rail network . Its operator has been the Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) since January 1, 2014. The entire length of the route is traveled by four pairs of trains every day, which take around 3 hours 20 minutes. The section from Nice to Le Plan du Var is served more often by local transport. Diesel railcars run as planned , on selected days nostalgia trips with steam locomotives are organized.

In 1943 the record number of 1,014,327 passengers was determined on this route, and in 1970 the minimum of 143,652 passengers. In 2006, 479,936 passengers were counted. The record in freight transport was 336,710 tons in 1926.

Saint-Raphaël - Toulon (103 km)

from	to	Section opened on
Saint-Raphaël	La Foux	September 19, 1889
La Foux	Hyeres	4th August 1890
Hyeres	Toulon	August 21, 1905

After destruction in the fighting that followed the landing of Allied troops in southern France on August 15, 1944, and the fire in the Fréjus depot in 1948, traffic on the coastline became official on May 14, 1948 - and after the last railcar journeys ( as replacement for missing buses) 1949 finally - discontinued. From Toulon to Bormes-les-Mimosas, the route has been converted into a pedestrian and cycle path (chemin du train des Pignes) , as well as between Le Lavandou and Pramousquier.

Cogolin - Saint-Tropez (9 km)

Map of Saint-Tropez and the surrounding area with drawn railway lines (1921)

from	to	Section opened on
Cogolin	Saint Tropez	July 1, 1894

In 1909 an extension of the route to La Garde-Freinet and Le Luc was approved. Work on the first section began shortly before the beginning of World War I , but was then discontinued and abandoned in 1921. This route was also officially closed on May 14, 1948; the last trip was with a railcar on June 4, 1949.

Relics

In some of the formerly connected places, the station buildings have been preserved. For example, there is a post office in the former train station in Le Lavandou . Roads were built on large parts of the former routes after the closure, the Pont Eiffel bridge in Grasse also carries a road after the piers have been renovated. Numerous other bridge structures have been completely or partially preserved.