The Portet-Saint-Simon - Puigcerdà railway is a secondary railway line in southwestern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. It connects

Portet-sur-Garonne Portet-sur-Garonne (, literally ''Portet on Garonne''; Languedocien: ''Portèth de Garona'') is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. Portet-Saint-Simon station has rail connections to Foix, Tarbes, and Toulouse, whi ...

, 11 km south of Toulouse on the

Toulouse–Bayonne railway The railway from Toulouse to Bayonne is an important French 319-kilometre long railway line, that connects the southern city Toulouse to the southwestern town Bayonne, running along the foothills of the Pyrenees. The railway was opened in several s ...

, to

Latour-de-Carol Latour-de-Carol (; ca, La Tor de Querol) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. Geography Localization Latour-de-Carol is located in the canton of Les Pyrénées catalanes and in the arrondissement of Pra ...

and

Puigcerdà Puigcerdà (; es, Puigcerdá) is the capital of the '' Catalan comarca'' of Cerdanya, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, northern Spain, near the Segre River and on the border with France (it abuts directly onto the French town of Bourg-Ma ...

, towns located on each side of the French/Spanish border in Cerdanya. The railway was opened in several stages between 1861 and 1929. Since the closure of the railway from Pau to

Huesca Huesca (; an, Uesca) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon. It is also the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and of the comarca of Hoya de Huesca. In 2009 it had a population of 52,059, almo ...

via

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 1970, it is the only railway crossing the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

main chain. It is used daily by Corail Lunéa trains from Paris to Latour-de-Carol and

Transport express régional Transport express régional (, usually shortened to TER) is the brand name used by the SNCF, the French national railway company, to denote rail service run by the regional councils of France, specifically their organised transport authorities. T ...

, (TER) trains from Toulouse to Pamiers, Foix, Ax-les-Thermes and Latour-de-Carol. Most freight and long-distance passenger trains use either the

Bordeaux–Irun railway The railway from Bordeaux to Irun is an important French 235-kilometre long railway line, that connects the southwestern city Bordeaux to northern Spain. The railway was opened in several stages between 1841 and 1864. Route The Bordeaux–Irun ra ...

around the western end of the Pyrenees, or the

Narbonne–Portbou railway The Narbonne—Portbou railway is an important 104-kilometre long railway line that connects the city of Narbonne, France to northeastern Spain. The railway was built by the Compagnie des Chemins de fer du Midi. The first section that was opened i ...

around the eastern end. Today, SNCF service terminates at the French side of the border at

. The service between Latour-de-Carol and Puigcerdà and onwards to Barcelona is provided by the Spanish Railway ( RENFE) for which the gauge is . The RENFE train from Latour-de-Carol connects directly with Barcelona but in July 2014 there are only five trains a day to Barcelona (and four from the city). It is line RFN 672 000 of the French National Rail Network. At most train stations along the route the altitude is engraved in a block of stone (sometimes specified: ''altitude du rail''). These elevations are inaccurate now because the altitude system is now different ( IGN-69). One curiosity of this route is the spiral tunnel at Saillens. Note that this line is a section of a railway between Toulouse and Barcelona requiring a change of train at Latour-de-Carol and a journey of 7:00hrs between the two cities, but it avoids, having to use the much more expensive trains such as the

AVE ''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...

(via Perpignan, a route not requiring any changes). A full price ticket costs €30 full price via Latour de Carol compared to between €65 and €90 by TGV or Talgo (May 2011 prices) via Narbonne and / or Figueras.

History

The railway was built by the Compagnie des Chemins de fer du Midi. The first section that was opened in 1861 led from

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 Pa ...

Pamiers Pamiers (; oc, Pàmias ) is a commune and largest city in the Ariège department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is the most populous commune in the Ariège department, although i ...

. The line was extended to

Foix Foix (; oc, Fois ; ca, Foix ) is a commune, the former capital of the County of Foix. It is the capital of the department of Ariège as it is the seat of the Préfecture of that department. Foix is located in the Occitanie region of south ...

in 1862. The line was extended from Foix to Tarascon-sur-Ariège in 1877, and further to Ax-les-Thermes in 1888. Finally in 1929 the section from Ax-les-Thermes to

was opened.

Rolling Stock

TER connections are currently provided by electric multiple unit trains model SNCF Z 27500 ( Autorail à grande capacité) which in the 2000s replaced the

SNCF Class Z 7300 The SNCF Class Z 7300 electric multiple units were built by Alsthom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, ...

. The direct connection Latour-de-Carol to Paris is provided by the

Intercités de nuit Intercités de Nuit is a brand name used by France’s national railway company, SNCF, to denote overnight passenger rail services in France. It was known as ''Corail Lunéa'' before 2009 and as ''Lunéa'' from 2010 to 2012. Between 2013 and 20 ...

night train.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Portet-Saint-Simon-Puigcerda railway Railway lines in Occitania (administrative region) Railway lines opened in 1929 1861 establishments in France

History

Rolling Stock

See also

References