The Pau–Canfranc railway is a partially-closed long international single-track standard gauge
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
line connecting
Pau in the
Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; eu, Pirinio Atlantiarrak or ) is a department in the southwest corner of France and of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Pyrenees mountain range and the Atlanti ...
region of
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, climbing via the
Gave d'Aspe
The Gave d'Aspe is a torrential river flowing through the Aspe Valley, one of the three main valleys of the High- Béarn (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), in the southwest of France. It is long.
It is formed in the ''Aspe Cirque'', below the Aspe pea ...
valley and tunneling under the Pyrenees, to
Canfranc
Canfranc () is a municipality in the Aragón Valley of north-eastern Spain consisting of two villages, the original village and ''Canfranc Estación'', which developed with the establishment of Canfranc International railway station to serve railw ...
in
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. The line is part of transport infrastructure between (
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
or)
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
and
Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
and is now named the Goya Line, after the painter
Francisco de Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...
who was born near Zaragoza and died in Bordeaux.
Opened and electrified in 1928, it was closed south of
Bedous
Bedous is a commune of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in southwestern France. It is the birthplace of Pierre Laclède, the Frenchman who founded the U.S. city of St. Louis.
Its station on the Pau–Canfranc railway was closed after an ac ...
, France, after a major derailment accident on 27 March 1970, which destroyed the L'Estanguet bridge south of
Accous
Accous is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France.
Geography
Location
Accous is located some 30 km south of Oloron-Sainte-Marie in the Aspe Valley, one of the thr ...
.
[ North of Bedous, the line was closed up to ]Oloron-Sainte-Marie
Oloron-Sainte-Marie (; oc, Auloron e Senta Maria; eu, Oloroe-Donamaria) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine (before 2015: Aquitaine), southwestern France.
History
The town was founded by the ...
to passengers on 30 May 1980, although it remained open for freight traffic until 1985. In August 2014, the French state railway company SNCF
The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...
began work on a project to reopen this section, which happened on 1 July 2016.
This section of between Pau and Bedous in France is used by TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine
TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine is the regional rail network serving the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It is operated by the French national railway company SNCF. It was formed in 2017 from the previous TER networks TER Aquitaine, TER ...
passenger trains, whereas the branch to Arudy
Arudy (; Gascon: Arudi) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-western France.
The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Arudyens'' or ''Arudyennes''.
The commune has been awarded o ...
from Buzy was converted into a cycle path after 2012. Connecting buses run from Bedous to Canfranc, and trains still run on the Spanish side from Canfranc International Railway Station
Canfranc International railway station ( es, Estación Internacional de Canfranc) is a formerly international railway station in the village of Canfranc in the Spanish Pyrenees. The Somport railway tunnel, inoperative since 1970, which carries t ...
, departing south to Jaca
Jaca (; in Aragonese: ''Chaca'' or ''Xaca'') is a city of northeastern Spain in the province of Huesca, located near the Pyrenees and the border with France. Jaca is an ancient fort on the Aragón River, situated at the crossing of two great ...
and Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
.
History
Proposal to build - France
The legal title to build the Pau to Oloron-Sainte-Marie section was given to the Chemins de fer du Midi
The Compagnie des chemins de fer du Midi (. CF du Midi), also known in English as the Midi or Southern Railway, was an early French railway company which operated a network of routes in the southwest of the country, chiefly in the area between i ...
on signing of a memorandum between the company and the Minister of Agriculture, Trade and Public Works on 10 August 1868. The agreement was approved by an imperial decree on the same date, and declared a public utility and definitively granted by a law on 23 March 1874. After completing construction, this section came into operation in 1883.
On 17 July 1879 a law was passed (the Freycinet plan The Freycinet Plan (french: Plan Freycinet) was an ambitious public works programme, launched in 1878 by the Minister of Public Works Charles de Freycinet, principally for the construction of railways, but also for canals and maritime ports. In its ...
, covering 181 ranking railway lines of general interest. No.178 was a line from "Oloron in Bedous (Lower Pyrenees)", and further a line from "Oloron to Puyoô in Saint-Palais, by the Gave Oloron Valley". Subsequently, on 17 July 1886 No.179 was legally titled to the Chemins de fer du Midi by a separate law. The Oloron to Bedous section was declared a public utility, with the concession confirmed on 27 June 1897; the latter proposed section to Puyoô was never built, cancelled by a law on 8 July 1900.
International section
The international section from Bedous into Spain was the subject of an international convention between France and Spain signed on 18 August 1904. Approved by a French law on 10 January 1907 and promulgated by a decree on 6 February 1907, the concession to build was granted to the Chemins de fer du Midi after an agreement with the Minister of Public Works was signed on 20 June 1907, and declared a public utility by a law 2 August 1907.
The Franco-Spanish convention was amended by a protocol signed on 15 April 1908, which provided that the required Somport
Somport or Col du Somport, known also as the Aspe Pass or Canfranc Pass, (el. 1632 m.) is a mountain pass in the central Pyrenees on the border of France and Spain. Its name is derived from the Latin ''Summus portus''. It was one of the most popu ...
tunnel would be equipped with a track, the gauge on the French side, and that the Spanish government would fund a suitable gauge interchange station on their side. The protocol was enacted by a decree on 25 January 1909.
Construction of the Somport tunnel was inaugurated on 12 July 1912, and after delays in its construction due to World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, completed in 1915. Spanish project engineer Ramírez de Dampierre began construction of the Canfranc International Railway Station
Canfranc International railway station ( es, Estación Internacional de Canfranc) is a formerly international railway station in the village of Canfranc in the Spanish Pyrenees. The Somport railway tunnel, inoperative since 1970, which carries t ...
in 1923, and it was formally opened on 18 July 1928, in the presence of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and the president of the French Republic Gaston Doumergue
Pierre Paul Henri Gaston Doumergue (; 1 August 1863 in Aigues-Vives, Gard18 June 1937 in Aigues-Vives) was a French politician of the Third Republic. He served as President of France from 13 June 1924 to 13 June 1931.
Biography
Doumergue ca ...
.
Operations
On full opening, the line converted immediately to overhead line
An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as:
* Overhead catenary
* Overhead contact system (OCS)
* Overhead equipmen ...
electrification at 1500 V DC. The line was built to gauge, but on connecting to the Iberian gauge
Iberian gauge ( es, ancho ibérico, trocha ibérica, pt, bitola ibérica) is a track gauge of , most extensively used by the railways of Spain and Portugal. This is the second-widest gauge in regular use anywhere in the world. The Indian gauge, , ...
() track at Canfranc, the large station there allowed for suitable interchange facilities.
From Pau, France, the line follows the Gave d'Aspe
The Gave d'Aspe is a torrential river flowing through the Aspe Valley, one of the three main valleys of the High- Béarn (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), in the southwest of France. It is long.
It is formed in the ''Aspe Cirque'', below the Aspe pea ...
valley southward, reaching Bedous (altitude ) in relatively flat terrain. After this it climbs into the Pyrénées Mountains, with an average gradient
In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gradi ...
of (2.5 %) to Etsaut
Etsaut is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.
Its station on the Pau–Canfranc railway was closed after an accident in 1970.
See also
*Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department
The following ...
, and then (4.3 %) to the tunnel at Somport, where the line reaches its maximum altitude of . To reach this point from Bedous, the steeply climbing line both traverses sharp curves and passes through 14 tunnels including the spiral tunnel at Forges-d'Abel.
Due to the Franco-Spanish international convention under which it was built, the Somport tunnel and quasi-French control of the French-side of Canfranc international railway station continued during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The Spanish authorities came to an operational agreement with the German Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
authorities whereby passenger train services continued, and freight trains carried mined tungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...
north and French grain plus trans-shipped Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
south.
Closure
On 20 March 1970, a nine-car train carrying corn
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
left Pau for Canfranc (where there is still a large regional grain terminal), headed by two SNCF BB Midi locomotives, No.4227 and 4235. Having passed the station at Lescun Cette-Eygun, they started to climb the Aspe valley towards Etsaut and Urdos. This was early morning and the tracks were iced due to the humid cold, causing wheel slippage while on the steep 4.3% climb. The train came to a stop. Both locomotives' sandboxes were empty, and the engineers decided to dispense pebbles on the rails instead. They set both locomotives on rheostatic braking
Dynamic braking is the use of an electric traction motor as a generator when slowing a vehicle such as an electric or diesel-electric locomotive. It is termed " rheostatic" if the generated electrical power is dissipated as heat in brake grid ...
and climbed down from the cabin. However, the electrical substation at Urdos supplying power to the line was not working, resulting in the line voltage to be 900 volts DC instead of the nominal 1500 volts; as a result, the Bedous substation breakers tripped, leaving the unmanned train to freewheel backwards down the line. The train passed through Lescun Cette-Eygun station at more than , leaving no time for the automatic road crossing to close. On reaching the bridge over Estanguet river (km 280) at such a speed, the resulting movement of the cars caused them to come off the track. The first car consequently hit the bridge and derailed the whole train, destroying the bridge. No one was killed or injured in the accident.[
The accident, occurring two weeks before ]Good Friday
Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Hol ...
, resulted in the railway service being replaced on a temporary basis with connecting buses from Bedous. Although the bridge was replaceable, the SNCF, with major operating and balance sheet debts, argued against replacement, and hence terminated service to Bedous.[History of the Pau–Canfranc railway]
Due to its length of and resultant cost of maintenance, the Somport railway tunnel was converted after the line was partially closed in 1970 and rebuilt like a tramway: the railway tracks were removed and track sections inset into a hard road-like surface, allowing for joint passage of both trains and road vehicles. During the construction of the Somport road tunnel, 17 passageways were cut into the railway tunnel to allow for escape should a fire ever break out when traffic is going through the tunnel.
Stations
The main stations on the line are:
Note: The origin of PK is in Toulouse
Renovation and reopening
In present economic development, the transport route beneath the Aspe peak
Aspe peak (also known as Pico de la Garganta de Aísa) is a mountain in the western Pyrenees of Huesca; which is situated on the west side of the Aragon Valley near the towns of Villanúa (to the south) and Canfranc (to the east). The peak is A ...
via the Gave d'Aspe
The Gave d'Aspe is a torrential river flowing through the Aspe Valley, one of the three main valleys of the High- Béarn (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), in the southwest of France. It is long.
It is formed in the ''Aspe Cirque'', below the Aspe pea ...
valley is changing from a relatively unused route into a major transport channel. This is due not only to the regional pressure between Bordeaux and Zaragoza (which on the Spanish side alone has a regional population of 1 million people), but also to the importance of the international route between Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
and Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...
. These economic pressures - in part driven by the General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
(later PSA) plant located in Zaragoza - have in recent years resulted in heavy truck and car traffic on the roads of the upper Gave d'Aspe
The Gave d'Aspe is a torrential river flowing through the Aspe Valley, one of the three main valleys of the High- Béarn (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), in the southwest of France. It is long.
It is formed in the ''Aspe Cirque'', below the Aspe pea ...
valley, and an increased number of accidents.
As a result, the French government placed pressure on SNCF to reopen the route to at least Bedous to allow the safe opening of the upper valley to tourists and also to service regional passenger traffic. This would then allow due economic discussion to take place between the French and Spanish governments over opening the residual section to Canfranc, something which SNCF considers not in best modern operational interests, taking into account the loading gauge restrictions of the helical tunnel at Forges-d'Abel. However, supporters point out that at no point does the current line infrastructure fall below a radius of , and that clearance in the helical tunnel is a minimum of , well in accordance with modern secondary-line criteria.
In May 2008, following a landslide on the RN 134 in January 2008 and the resultant need to use the Sens tunnel near Etsaut, President of the Aquitaine
Aquitaine ( , , ; oc, Aquitània ; eu, Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne ( oc, Guiana), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 January ...
region Alain Rousset invited SNCF President Guillaume Pepy
Guillaume Pepy (born 26 May 1958) is a high-ranking French civil servant who currently serves as president of the SNCF, the French national rail authority. He is also Chairman of Eurostar and Deputy-Chairman of the Keolis Group.
President Nicolas ...
to the line, during which Pepy agreed in principle to support reopening the line.
Pau to Oloron-Sainte-Marie
In September 2008, the major electrical substation which supplied power on the Pau to Oloron-Sainte-Marie section was turned off and removed to permit the commercial expansion of an industrial estate. In September 2010, the line was closed for six months to allow major works to be undertaken, both to the infrastructure and environment. The entire line infrastructure, including all ballast and the redundant Midi catenary, was removed, the roadways cleared and new drainage built. Then new ballast and lines were installed, laid out to allow later possible electrification. Finally, TER Aquitaine replaced the previously used SNCF Class X 2200
The SNCF Class X 2200 diesel multiple unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. ...
railcar units with modern SNCF Class X 73500
The X73500 is a Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) train type operated by the SNCF in France. They were built from 1999 to 2004 by Alsthom DDF.
General Information
The trains are single railcars. The units were ordered joint with Deutsche Bahn, with the ...
.
Agreement to reopen to Canfranc
Since the mid-2000s, the Aquitaine region has supported the line's reopening. On 15 March 2013 Alain Rousset (President of the Aquitaine region) and Luisa Fernanda Rudi Ubeda
Luisa Fernanda Rudi Úbeda (born 14 December 1950) is a Spanish politician currently serving as Senator from Aragón since 2015. She served as the 175th president of the Congress of Deputies, being the first woman to hold the position in Spani ...
(President of the Government of Aragon) signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a plan of cross-border cooperation up until 2020. The memorandum sets a timetable for reopening of the line in two phases, the Oloron section to Bedous in 2015, then the Bedous section across the border to Canfranc in 2020. Subsequently, the Autonomous Community of Aragon acquired the Canfranc station from RENFE with a plan to restore and develop it as a catalyst (tourism, academic, economic) for the region.
After signing the memorandum, the Aquitaine Regional Council (ARC) commissioned SNCF to undertake preliminary studies on opening the section from Oloron-Sainte-Marie to Bedous, and to survey the whole line to Canfranc. The study found that all tunnels on the line were in good condition, except for the sidewall of Peilhou tunnel that had collapsed. Similarly, the bridges are still in place, except south of Bedous towards Canfranc, where there are three major areas of work required:
*Estanguet bridge, destroyed by the 1970 accident
*Bigue bridge over the river Aspe, south of Accous. The bridge was destroyed by a flood on 5 October 1992. Since then, the building of the RN 134 bypass road from Bedous and Accous (, which cost EUR 41.66 million) has also removed the approach infrastructure
*Peilhou and Serbers viaducts. During the construction of the RN 134, retaining the viaducts would have created too sharp a curve on the road. Consequently, it was agreed to keep both viaducts intact but remove one approach embankment of each viaduct, to enable the creation of a wider road.
Despite an unfavorable opinion from both the public enquiry and the Commission of Inquiry, ARC declared the project a public utility by the signing of the decree on 19 February 2014.
Reopening of Oloron-Sainte-Marie to Bedous
SNCF were commissioned by ARC to undertake full costings and present a project plan for the reopening of the Oloron-Sainte-Marie to Bedous section. The SNCF reported that substantial work was required, including the replacement of 12 bridge decks, rebuilding of all road crossings to modern unmanned standards, and full renovation of all stations. Further, SNCF stated the requirement of modern landslide protection along the line. The ARC announced that the project was valued €122M, with €100M coming from ARC's budget and a minimum of €30M coming from other sources, mainly the French government and EU grants.
Following delays in agreement on budget funding, SNCF began work on 26 September 2014 with a projected opening to Bedous by March 2016. In a replication of the project to renovate the Pau to Oloron-Sainte-Marie section, the project included removal of all line infrastructure; renovation of all earthworks and bridges; removal of two road crossings and renovation of all other crossings to modern unmanned standards; installation of the required landslide protection and matts; and then track re-laying with new ballast, concrete sleepers and steel rails.
SNCF proposed installation of Automatic Block restricted permissiveness signalling between Oloron and Bedous. There are three sections: Bidos, Lurbe-Saint-Christau and Bedous.
PN sur rond-point Bidos.jpg, The most obvious resistance: The community of Bidos hoped a roundabout could prevent the line from being reopened.
Le train de nouveau à l’approche de la montagne.jpg, Between Lurbe und Sarrance, hills turn into mountains, ...
Sécurisation de la ligne à Escot.jpg, ... , and new facilities protect the line from falling rocks.
Rentrée des trains sur le viaduc d’Escot.jpg, The Escot viaduct
Arrivée à Bedous, regard vers Canfranc.jpg, Bedous has been reached, but as in 1914, the most demanding part of the line is still missing.
Canfranc station/hotel and railway current status (2022)
Limiting Canfranc station to its former freight part was completed in April 2021, changing the former track fields around the station building into a park and a road to access the buildings by the end of 2022. The hotel opens towards the end of January 2023, all the Spanish track is being equipped with sleepers convertible to standard gauge, and "with EU support it is hoped that the Canfranc line and station will be fully operational by 2026
See also
* Canfranc Underground Laboratory
References
External links
The International Train Station of Canfranc, photographs and history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pau-Canfranc railway
Railway lines in Spain
Railway lines in Nouvelle-Aquitaine