Moûtiers-Salins – Brides-les-Bains tram

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Two trams meet on the single-track route

The Moûtiers-Salins-Brides-les-Bains tram connected three thermal baths in the French Alps of the Savoie department .

history

The starting point of the six-kilometer, meter-gauge, single-track tram route was the station in the municipality of Moûtiers -en-Tarentaise. It was the terminus of a PLM line from Albertville since 1893 and was called Moûtiers-Salins, since the 1930s Moûtiers-Salins-Brides-les-Bains. The route led upwards in the valley of the Doron de Bozel , crossed the spa town of Salins-les-Thermes and ended in the thermal baths of Brides-les-Bains .

From September 13, 1899 - only during the bathing season from April 15 to October 15 of each year - electric railcars with or without a trailer usually ran fifteen times a day. They were operated with direct current of 500 volts. In addition to four two-axle railcars, there were two trailer cars and one freight car.

The track was built and opened by the Compagnie des Voies Ferrées des Alpes Francaises (VFAF) . After a long period of financial losses, the department of Savoie took over the direction in 1911 and commissioned the entrepreneur Bernard with the management. After the First World War, the Chemins de fer Départementaux d`intéret local de la Savoie (CDS) finally took over rail operations in 1923 .

When there was no economic improvement in the following years either, the railway was replaced on April 15, 1930 by an electric bus line, which could be extended by nine kilometers to Villard-du-Planay with little effort . Eight trolleybuses were used for passenger transport and four for freight transport.

The company operated two other trolleybus routes within the department and was now called Régie des Èlectrobus de Savoie . It closed the trolleybus operation in March 1965.

literature

  • Henri Domengie: Les petits trains de jadis - Volume 6: Sud-Est de la France. Editions du Cabri, Breil-sur-Roya 1985, ISBN 2-903310-34-3
  • Jean Robert: Histoire des transports dans les villes de France, Neuilly-sur-Seine 1974