The Somain-Halluin railway was a French standard gauge railway in the
Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Nord-Pas-de-Calais (); pcd, Nord-Pas-Calés); is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Hauts-de-France. It consisted of the departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais. Nord-Pas-de-Calais ...
. It was 35 miles long and it linked the town of
Somain in the
département du Nord with
Halluin
Halluin (; nl, Halewijn) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.
Geography
It is located at the north of the Métropole Européenne de Lille, on the Belgian border, contiguous with the Belgian town of Menen.
Population
Tran ...
near the Belgian border, via
Orchies
Orchies (; nl, Oorschie) is a commune in the department of Nord in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France.
Orchies is the biggest town of the Pévèle. It is especially known for its ''Musée de la chicorée'', the museum of chicory.
...
and
Tourcoing
Tourcoing (; nl, Toerkonje ; vls, Terkoeje; pcd, Tourco) is a city in northern France on the Belgian border. It is designated municipally as a commune within the department of Nord. Located to the north-northeast of Lille, adjacent to Roubai ...
. Today, the line is closed to passengers. The section between Orchies and
Ascq Ascq (; pcd, Ask) is a former commune on the Marque river in the Nord department in northern France, at seven kilometers from Belgium. Agricultural village until the Industrial Revolution, the former independent commune merged with others to beco ...
was used by local passenger trains until 2015. It was decided in 2020 not to renovate and re-open the line. Instead, the current
TER Hauts-de-France
TER Hauts-de-France is the regional rail network serving the region of Hauts-de-France, northern France. It is operated by the French national railway company SNCF. It was formed in 2017 from the previous TER networks TER Nord-Pas-de-Calais and ...
bus service is planned to be upgraded by 2026.
History
On 15 September 1871, the French North Eastern railway was awarded a concession to construct the ''Somain to Roubaix & Tourcoing railway''. The line aimed to transport coal to support textile industries in the area. Local municipalities had been consulted in June 1871, and a definitive route was published just over three years later on 12 January 1875.
In 1876, the
French Northern Railway acquired various railway lines in the area, including the short part of the Somain-Halluin Railway which was then open (10 miles between Somain and Orchies). In 1879, the line reached Tourcoing.
The first section of the line to lose passenger trains was the stretch between Somain and Orchies, where services were withdrawn on 15 May 1939. The section between Ascq and Tourcoing followed six weeks later.
Passenger services were maintained until December 1971 between Toircoing and Halluin.
Closure
After passenger services were withdrawn, freight services continued to use the line. However, the line was eventually shut down in stages:
*Halluin to Belgian border: 24 February 1975
*Wandignies-Hamage to Orchies and Lannoy to Roubaix-Wattrelos: 22 February 1991
*Orchies-Ascq: 28 June 2015
[
]
References
*Fascicule ''Gares et lignes du nord'' edited by COPEF (Cercle Ouest Parisien d'Études Ferroviaires), 1985.
Railway lines in Hauts-de-France
Nord (French department)
Standard gauge railways in France
{{DEFAULTSORT:Somain-Halluin railway