The Saint-Gingolph–Saint-Maurice railway is a single-track railway in Switzerland. It was opened on 14 July 1859 by the Ligne d’Italie. It connects

Le Bouveret Le Bouveret () is a village in the commune of Port-Valais in the Swiss canton of Valais. Situated at the southernmost end of Lake Geneva and close to the French border, Le Bouveret is very much tourism-oriented with several amusement attractions ...

Lake Geneva , image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg , caption = Satellite image , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = Switzerland, France , coords = , lake_type = Glacial lak ...

with Saint-Maurice. The line to the French–Swiss border near Saint-Gingolph was opened together with its continuation towards

Évian-les-Bains Évian-les-Bains (), or simply Évian ( frp, Èvian, , or ), is a Communes of France, commune in the northern part of the Haute-Savoie Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region, Southeastern France. ...

on 1 June 1886. The line together with the French line to Évian is sometimes called the ''Tonkin Line'', because construction workers saw similarities in the geological conditions to

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

. It was the first railway line in the

canton of Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the 26 cantons forming the Sw ...

. A 691 metre-long tunnel had to be built on the approach to Saint-Maurice which is the only major structure of the line (the tunnel was shortened to 490 metres during an upgrade of the

Simplon Railway The Simplon Railway is a line that links Lausanne in Switzerland and Domodossola in Italy, via Brig. The -long Simplon Tunnel (opened in 1906) is a major part of it. The line between Lausanne and Vallorbe is sometimes considered to form part of th ...

to double track in 1906).

History

As early as 1852, a concession was sought for a line from

Villeneuve Villeneuve, LaVilleneuve or deVilleneuve may refer to: People * Villeneuve (surname) Places Australia * Villeneuve, Queensland, a town in the Somerset Region Canada * Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a Formula One racetrack in Montréal * Villeneuv ...

Aosta Aosta (, , ; french: Aoste , formerly ; frp, Aoûta , ''Veulla'' or ''Ouhta'' ; lat, Augusta Praetoria Salassorum; wae, Augschtal; pms, Osta) is the principal city of Aosta Valley, a bilingual region in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of ...

. Among other things, this did not proceed because the canton of Valais required two connecting lines, one between

Martigny Martigny (; german: Martinach, ; la, Octodurum) is the capital city of the district of Martigny, canton of Valais, Switzerland. It lies at an elevation of , and its population is approximately 15000 inhabitants (''Martignerains'' or "Octodurie ...

and

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

and one between Illersaz and

. An application submitted a year later for a line from Le Bouveret to Sion, however, was successful and received a federal concession. The line was planned as an international through route, but never operated in this manner. This was partly because its continuation, the Saint-Gingolph–Évian railway, was opened in 1886 and thus after the opening of the Lausanne–Brig line. The section of the line in France was built by the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM). Passenger operations between Évian-les-Bains and Saint-Gingolph were closed in 1937. Freight on the line gained momentum during the Second World War, when it was the only line crossing into Switzerland that was not directly under the control of the Axis powers. Then it returned to insignificance, so that in 1988 all traffic ended on the French side. Since then, traffic has only run towards Saint-Maurice. The line between Saint-Maurice and Collombey was electrified in 1946 and the rest of the line to Saint-Gingolph in 1954.

Operations

Passenger traffic is limited to hourly regional trains operated by

RegionAlps RegionAlps is a railway company in the Swiss canton of Valais. It is a joint venture between Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), Transports de Martigny et Régions (TMR), and the canton of Valais. It runs passenger trains on the Simplon line between Saint ...

. These have increased in frequency, after it was one of the few lines in Switzerland where services had been reduced to a two-hour frequency in the 1990s. The regional services now continue beyond Saint-Maurice to Brig. Various sidings in Monthey and Collombey serve daily freight traffic towards Saint-Maurice. In addition to the sidings (Losinger, Givo., CABV, AGIP), only Monthey station is open on the basic network for single wagonload traffic. Although Bouveret is still open as an operating point for freight traffic, it is currently used very rarely. Therefore, there is no daily freight traffic between Saint-Gingolph and Monthey.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint-Gingolph-Saint-Maurice railway Railway lines in Switzerland Standard gauge railways in Switzerland Buildings and structures in Valais Railway lines opened in 1859