Bordeaux ring route

Bordeaux ring route
Caudéran-Mérignac station building
Route network around the city of Bordeaux
Route number (SNCF) :	586,000
Course book route (SNCF) :	405
Route length:	16.8 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	1.5kV  =
Dual track :	Yes
Legend 0.0 Bordeaux-St-Jean 7 m Railway line Bordeaux – Sète to Toulouse from Bordeaux-Ségur (formerly Bordeaux – La Teste) 4.0 Ab and Médoquine Railway line Bordeaux – Irun to Hendaye 4.2 Talence-Médoquine 22 m 6.1 Ab and Échoppes 7.6 Mérignac-Arlac 9.3 Caudéran-Mérignac 30 m Bordeaux-St-Louis – Pointe de Grave railway line to Pointe de Grave ~ 15 Tram C (from spring 2015) 15.9 Bordeaux ravezies 16.8 Bordeaux-St-Louis m

The Bordeaux ring line ( French ceinture de Bordeaux ) is a railway connection of the city of Bordeaux , which connected the two inner-city stations St Jean and St Louis, but today only represents a distribution function to the lines connected to these stations. It is completely two-pronged and electrified.

history

The line was initially built as a single track by the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Midi in 1917 , but five years later it was extended to two tracks. At that time it represented an important gap between the two inner-city train stations, but also within its own route network. In 1925, the new Saint-Louis station building, which had been built with the modern reinforced concrete construction, was completed. Four of the seven covered tracks served the trains of the ring railways, which were also led to the southwest via the Échoppes junction to Facture-Biganos on the route to Dax , 50 kilometers away .

Already in the summer of 1934 the line was electrified - together with the Bordeaux-St-Louis-Pointe de Grave railway - major plans were being prepared for these two lines with the Môle d'Escale , but these were brought to an abrupt end by the course of the war. After the Second World War, the great era of steam shipping was over, and with it the fast train connection to an estuary on the Atlantic.

Multi-storey car park at the Mérignac Arlac transfer point: ring line to the tram

Today this route is part of the north-west route to Pointe de Grave via Margaux and Lesparre-Médoc . It remains to be seen how traffic flows will develop after the opening of Tram C in spring 2015. The plan is to use a tram-train that will join the old line at the old St-Louis station.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Railway Gazette : Electrification contract for Bordeaux tram-train project , February 25, 2013