Train Bleu
The Train Bleu ( called Blue Train by the British ), officially known as the Calais-Mediterranée Express until 1947 , was a luxury train that ran between Calais 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 blue-painted steel sleeping car that was first used by the operator CIWL in 1922 .
prehistory
In December 1883, the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL) introduced its second luxury train, the new Calais-Nice-Rome Express . Due to a contract between the European Pullman company , which competes with CIWL, and Strade Ferrate dell'Alta Italia (SFAI), the train was unable to use the route through the Mont-Cenis tunnel . CIWL passengers to Rome therefore had to drive time-consuming along the Riviera. In 1885 the SFAI merged with other companies to form the Rete Adriatica . This gave CIWL the opportunity to run the train as the Rome Express between Paris and Rome via Mont Cenis from 1890 onwards . The train run from Calais to the Riviera was named Calais-Mediterranée Express and ended at the Italian border station at Ventimiglia . The two trains ran together between Paris and Mâcon . The trains were operated by the CIWL, locomotives provided by the companies on whose routes the train ran. North of Paris this was the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord (NORD), south of Paris the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM).
Calais-Méditerranée
The Calais-Méditerranée Express was introduced in the winter timetable of 1886/1887. From the winter timetable of 1889/1890, the train was called Méditerrannée Express for a few years . The route was extended to San Remo , the northern starting point to Paris was withdrawn. The Club Train , consisting of saloon cars , established the connection between Paris and Calais . There was a direct connection between the trains at Paris Gare du Nord station .
Route and timetable 1892
| South | railway station | km | Northward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Club Train | |||
| 15:00 | London Charing Cross | 22:43 | |
| 15:00 | London Victoria | 22:43 | |
| 14:55 | Holborn Viaduct | 22:47 | |
| 22:47 | Paris north | 15:15 | |
| Méditerranée Express | |||
| 23:40 | Paris north | 14:20 | |
| 08:49 | Lyon | 06:06 | |
| 14:25 | Marseille | 00:30 | |
| 18:18 | Cannes | 20:43 | |
| 19:00 | Nice | 20:00 | |
| 19:37 | Monte Carlo | 18:52 | |
| 20:14 | Menton | 18:36 | |
| 20:36 | Ventimiglia | 18:14 | |
After the English London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LC&DR) canceled the contract for the Club Train in 1893 , the train operated again as the Calais-Méditerrannée Express from Calais until the First World War .
"Train Bleu" from 1922 to 1939
In 1922, the CIWL procured new type S sleeping cars for the Calais-Mediterranée Express , which were made entirely of steel for the first time. Instead of the previous teak cladding, these wagons were given a steel blue paint with gold lettering. From 1929 these sleeping cars were replaced by the new type Lx10 , which had ten spacious cabins for individual travelers and whose interior had been designed by renowned interior designers. Each car had its own steward who took care of the passengers ' wishes during the journey . The dining car became famous for its opulent five-course menu, and a separate bar and saloon car provided additional amenities. Due to the color scheme, the train was quickly nicknamed "Train Bleu" by travelers. What was all the luxury trains CIWL at that time and the Calais-Mediterranée Express a pure first- class - train .
The maiden voyage of the “Train Bleu”, the first CIWL train to be equipped with the new wagons, took place on December 8, 1922. As in the time before the First World War, it was widely used by wealthy British travelers to the southern French Riviera. The "Train Bleu" had the highest occupancy from November to April - that is, in those months when the British upper class, who were keen to travel, exchanged the unfriendly weather of the island for the pleasant climate of the French and Italian Riviera.
The train left Calais- Maritime station at 1 p.m., following the ferry from England . The journey led first to Paris, first to the Gare du Nord , then via the outer Paris Belt Railway to the Gare de Lyon , where he drove to Dijon , Chalon-sur-Saône and Lyon in the early evening . In the early hours of the morning he reached Marseille , from there via Toulon to the famous seaside resorts of the Côte d'Azur : Saint-Raphaël , Cannes , Juan-les-Pins , Antibes , Nice , Beaulieu-sur-Mer , Monte-Carlo , Monaco . From the Ventimiglia terminus, a through car continued to San Remo .
The government of the Popular Front urged that the train be made available to a broader population. The CIWL then put 2nd class sleeping cars and 3rd class cars on the train in 1936 . In 1938, all major railway companies in France were nationalized and merged to form the Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF). The nationalization, however, had no effect on the luxury trains of the CIWL, the SNCF continued, like the PLM before, only provided the locomotives for the train. During the Second World War , the "Train Bleu" was removed from the timetable .
Well-known passengers on the "Train Bleu" at this time were the Prince of Wales , Charlie Chaplin , the fashion designer Coco Chanel , the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the writers F. Scott Fitzgerald , Evelyn Waugh and William Somerset Maugham .
From 1947 to 2007
From 1947 the CIWL officially referred to the train as "Train Bleu" and it operated again as a purely 1st class train. 1959–1962 Inox wagons made of stainless steel were also set on the train and it was silver and blue. A little later, new 26.4 m long sleeping cars were introduced and the train again had a uniform blue appearance. However, with the expansion of air traffic, he increasingly lost his clientele. From 1962 the train therefore also carried the (new) 2nd class and couchette cars and from the 1960s onwards only ran from Paris.
In 1981 the new high-speed line Paris – Lyon was opened and extended to Marseille until 2001. The travel time between Paris and Nice was shortened from fifteen to six hours and there was no longer sufficient need for a night train. The “Train Bleu” operated under this name until 2003, and on December 9, 2007 the last sleeper connection between Paris and Marseille was discontinued.
Literary and artistic importance
For many artists, the “Train Bleu” was just as inspiring as the Orient Express . Just two years after the train received the blue sleeping car that gave it its name, the ballet of the same name by Serge Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes with the choreography by Bronislava Nijinska was premiered in 1924 ; Jean Cocteau wrote the text , the costumes were by Coco Chanel and the stage design by Pablo Picasso .
Agatha Christie was in 1928 under the title The Mystery of the Blue Train ( German : The Mystery of the Blue Train ) murder in it - even before their legendary Murder on the Orient Express . In 1949, Georges Simenon also made it the setting for the crime thriller Mon Ami Maigret (German: My friend Maigret ) - filmed for television in 1973 and 2001.
Based on the crime stories of the French authors Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac , the French television series Le train bleu s'arrete 13 fois (= the blue train stops thirteen times / no German synchronization) was created in 1965/66 .
Worth knowing
In the twenties and thirties there was the Blue Train Races , a race of ( Bentley ) automobiles against the legendary train.
In 1963, the pompous Belle Époque restaurant in Gare de Lyon in Paris , built around 1900, was renamed Le Train Bleu as a tribute to the legendary train . There is also a cocktail called “Le Train Bleu”, which consists of sparkling wine , cognac and pineapple juice .
literature
- George Behrend : Big express trains in Europe . Orell Füssli, Zurich 1967
- George Behrend, Histoire des Trains de luxe, Office du Livre-Friborg 1977
- Jean des Cars, Jean-Paul Caracalla: Train Bleu and the great Riviera express trains. Orell Füssli, Zurich / Wiesbaden 1989, ISBN 3-280-01908-7
- Albert Mühl, Jürgen Klein: Traveling in luxury trains. The International Sleeping Car Society . EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 2006, ISBN 3-88255-696-X
- Clive Lamming: LaRousse des trains et des chemins de fer. Paris 2007.
- Jim Ring, Riviera - The Rise and Rise of the Côte d'Azur. London, John Murray Publishers 2006.
- Stefan Vockrodt: Mistral, Capitol and other legends. Famous trains to, from and via Paris . In: Railways in Paris = Railway History Special 2 (2015). ISBN 978-3-937189-94-9 , pp. 60-67.
Remarks
- ↑ Since June 1883 she operated the Orient Express .
- ↑ The title was in the English first edition of 1934 Murder on the Orient Express , in the US first edition in the same year: Murder in the Calais Coach . The German first edition, also in 1934, appeared under the title Die Frau im Kimono , in 1951 the title was changed to Der Rote Kimono .