Société des Voies Ferrées Départementales du Midi
The Société des Voies Ferrées Départementales du Midi (VFDM) gave the neighboring railway companies the impetus to modernize and electrify local transport in the western part of the Basses-Pyrénées department .
history
Since tourism had developed well since the turn of the century, there were plans to build further rail connections to the well-frequented bathing beaches along the coast to the Spanish border and beyond. In 1910, the SA de Tramways Électriques Biarritz-St. Sebastién-Tolosa, which soon thereafter adopted the new name Société des Chemins de fer et des Tramways Électriques des Basses-Pyrénées et du Pays-Basque. But she soon had to give up her goals and was dissolved.
A new concession was granted to the Basses-Pyrenées department on July 13, 1912, from which it was transferred to the Société des Voies Ferrées Départementales du Midi (VFDM) on July 8, 1914. This subsidiary of the main railway company Compagnie des chemins de fer du Midi had worked from 1913 to 1914 under the name Société des Chemins de fer Basques. She founded her "Basque Network" (Réseau Basque).
In 1913 Bayonne began building an electric train that used direct current, the voltage of which was 675 volts in the city and 1350 volts in the outside area. It followed the Adour on the left bank via Blanc Pignon to La Barre at the mouth of the river, then ran parallel to the sea beach to the south, where it was supposed to open up the seaside resorts there.
The beginning of the First World War hindered further construction, so that only a section from Bayonne to Blanc-Pignon could be completed in 1916, although this was initially carried out by the Compagnie du Chemin de fer Pau-Oloron-Mauléon et du Tramway de Bayonne à Biarritz (POM) was operated. Only after the end of the war was the VFDM able to continue working on the extensive project itself and on July 1, 1919, extend this section from Blanc-Pignon via La Barre through the forest from Chiberta to Biarritz .
After the coastal tram had crossed the seaside resort, it reached the port city of Saint-Jean-de-Luz along the steep coast on July 26, 1924 and - partly on the tracks of the Hendaye tram - the Deux-Jumeaux station in the center of the city of Hendaye . Since July 10, 1925, the terminus was at the local Südbahnhof. Here the passengers could change to the electric train of the Chemins de fer vicinaux Basques Espagnoles (FVDZ), known because of its numerous tunnels> El Topo <(mole), across the Spanish border to San Sebastian , to which there was no track connection, although it has also been since 1912 was laid out in meter gauge.
On July 1, 1924, a branch line was opened from Saint Jean-de-Luz through the Nivelle valley into the hinterland via Ascain and Saint Ignace - where the mountain railway to La Rhune begins - to Sare . A cross connection was planned from Ascain in an easterly direction via Cambo to Peyrehorade in the Landes department . But because of the First World War and the subsequent development, this project was just as incomplete as another local line from Saint Palais to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port , the end point of a southern railway line from Bayonne. Only the short branch line from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Mendive was operated as a non-electrified factory line from 1927 to 1935.
Because the narrow streets of Biarritz, through which the route ran, did not allow goods traffic, a bypass (ceinture) was opened around the old town on October 5, 1927. In addition, the VFDM trains in Bayonne began in 1930 at the Südbahngesellschaft station on the right bank of the Adour and no longer at the Place d`Armes.
Although a modern, well-developed electrical rail network now existed at the beginning of the 1930s, it was unable to withstand the competition from the newly emerging buses and private vehicles for long. In spite of its financial difficulties, the VFDM did not receive any state support and therefore closed its lines again after the relatively short operating time of around 20 years:
- November 1, 1935 Hendaye – Biarritz
- March 12, 1936 Biarritz – La Barre
- July 1, 1937 Saint Jean – Ascain – Sare
- January 31, 1939 La Barre-Bayonne; this section passed to the POM,
which continued to run it until 1948.
literature
- Henri Domengie: Les petits trains de jadis - Volume 7: Sud-Ouest de la France. Editions du Cabri, Breil-sur-Roya 1986, ISBN 2-903310-48-3
- Jean Robert: Histoire des transports dans les villes de France, Neuilly-sur-Seine 1974