Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée
The Compagnie des Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée ( PLM ) or Compagnie Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée for short existed from 1857 to 1938. It grew to become the largest private railway in France .
Geographical location
The PLM operated railway lines in south-east France, between Paris and Lyon , in the Rhône basin, in Provence and on the Côte d'Azur . Their routes extended to Switzerland ( Geneva ) and Italy ( Ventimiglia ). It was based in Paris. Its central Paris train station was the Gare de Lyon , in the south it served upscale spas such as Cannes , Nice and Monaco .
history
Predecessor societies
Between 1843 and 1856, several companies built and operated railway lines between Paris, Lyon and Marseille. These individual companies initially merged to form two larger companies, the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Lyon à la Méditerranée (LM) and the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Lyon (PL).
The LM merged with the Dijon-Besançon-Belfort railway in 1854. In 1855, the PL, the Chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans (PO) and the Compagnie du chemin de fer Grand-Central de France signed a contract to build a railway from Paris to Lyon via Nevers , Roanne , St. Etienne and Givors and branches . In 1856 the PL was given the concession for a route from Dole to Salins-les-Bains .
PLM until the First World War
On April 11, 1857, the PL and LM were merged to form the PLM . The first general director was Paulin Talabot from 1862 to 1882 . With contracts of 1858 and 1859 between the PLM and the state, the PLM network was divided into an old (without interest rate guarantees ) and a new one (with interest rate guarantees) and the association with the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Dauphiné was confirmed. The old network was formed by the lines acquired before the merger on April 11, 1857, the new network comprised the lines acquired after 1857 and newly licensed. The state guaranteed a 4% interest rate and repayment of the capital invested for the new network for 50 years.
From 1863 the PLM reached beyond Europe: The Algerian Compagnie des chemins de fer algériens (CFA) had got into economic difficulties and was taken over by the PLM. This included a standard-gauge line from Algiers to Blida and concessions for the Oran – Sig railway and the Constantine – Skikda railway . The PLM operated its routes located in Algeria under the name PLM réseau d'Algérie . The extensions of the route from Blida to Oran and Sig (then: St. Denis du Sig) and from the port city of Skikda (then: Philippeville) to Constantine , a total of 506 km, were built in less than 10 years.
After the King of Sardinia , Victor Emanuel II , became King of Italy in the course of the Risorgimento with French support , he ceded Savoy and the county of Nice to the French Empire on March 24, 1860 in the Treaty of Turin . In 1867, PLM then bought the lines of the Italian Società per le Strade Ferrate Calabro-Sicule (formerly: Società Vittorio Emanuele ), which was now located on French territory , in particular the Mont-Cenis railway , which was still under construction .
In 1867, PLM bought the Culoz - Aix-les-Bains and Chambery - Modane routes , and in 1868 and 1875 the PLM received numerous new concessions, in 1875 for 20 routes alone. In 1883 the PLM was granted the concession for a further 1400 km, and the prospect of 600 km.
Since the PLM served upscale resorts such as Cannes and Nice in the south , it was an important part of the journey of wealthy British tourists to the Mediterranean. A corresponding offer was made for this clientele with the luxury train Calais-Mediterranée Express (" Train Bleu ", English : Blue Train ) of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL). The train operated between Calais , Paris and the Franco-Italian Riviera from 1886 to 1939 and from 1947 to 2007 . It owes its name to the dark blue color of the steel sleeping cars first purchased by CIWL in 1922 . In 1896, PLM had a new entrance building for the Gare de Lyon in Paris built by the architect Marius Toudoire in view of the 1900 World Exhibition . Its corner tower has architectural echoes of Big Ben in London , a greeting to this wealthy clientele.
The state's guarantee to PLM shareholders expired at the end of 1914 when the state made a final payment of 32 million francs .
Network scope 1912
| Networks in France | Route length km |
|---|---|
| old network («ancien Réseau») | 5779 |
| Network from 1883 ("Réseau de 1883") | 2005 |
| new network ("nouveau réseau", based on the Convention of 1875 and earlier treaties) | 1798 |
| total | 9582 |
| Lines abroad | Route length km |
|---|---|
| La Plaine-Genève (Switzerland) | 15th |
| Lignes non incorporées (border-Ventimiglia, old port-Marseille, border-Geneva-Eaux-Vives) | 14th |
| Algerian network | 513 |
In 1912 this was a total of 10,124 km .
PLM after the First World War
The amount of traffic the PLM sank in 1928 back to the level before the First World War . In 1929 the network had grown to 11,120 km.
PLM ordered new material in the early twenties, and in the early 1930s the Chambery – St. Modane and further in the direction of the Mont Cenis tunnel electrified and the Paris – Lyon railway line expanded. In 1935 the transition to the automatic route block followed , experiments with railcars , streamlined steam locomotives and large diesel locomotives .
nationalization
In 1938, the PLM was integrated into the newly founded state railway Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF). There it formed region 5.
Shipping company
To the own shipping company of the Compagnie Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée : Société nationale d'Affrètement
literature
- Victor von Röll: Encyclopedia of the Railway System . Keyword: Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean Railway . Berlin, Vienna 1914, p. 467 f.
- Stefan Vockrodt: The PLM: Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée . In: Railways in Paris = Railway History Special 2 (2015). ISBN 978-3-937189-94-9 , p. 33.
Remarks
- ↑ 9,841 km in France, 1,250 km in Algeria.
Web links
- Early documents and newspaper articles on the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Röll, p. 467.
- ↑ Röll, p. 467.
- ↑ Röll, p. 467.
- ↑ Röll, p. 467.
- ↑ Röll, p. 467.
- ↑ Stefan Vockrodt: The gateway to the Mediterranean. The Gare de Lyon - the nucleus of express transport . In: Railways in Paris = Railway History Special 2 (2015). ISBN 978-3-937189-94-9 , pp. 30-32 (30).
- ↑ Röll, p. 468.
- ↑ Röll, p. 467.
- ↑ Vockrodt: The PLM .
- ↑ Vockrodt: The PLM .