''Tren Francés'' (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

for "French Train") was the name of the flagship

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

service between

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

and

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

. Owned by

Ferrocarriles de Cuba Ferrocarriles de Cuba (FCC) or Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Cuba (English: National Railway Company of Cuba), provides passenger and freight services for Cuba. Route network Ferrocarriles de Cuba uses that extends from Guane (province Pinar del ...

, it was operated by

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 ...

ex-

Trans Europ Express The Trans Europ Express, or Trans-Europe Express (TEE), was an international first-class railway service in western and central Europe that was founded in 1957 and ceased in 1995. At the height of its operations, in 1974, the TEE network compri ...

(TEE) , originally used in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

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

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, on the Étoile du Nord service and used in

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 ...

between

and

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

Le Mistral ''Le Mistral'', or the ''Mistral'', was an express train between Paris and Nice in France. Introduced in 1950, it was operated by the ''Société Nationale des Chemins de fer français'' ("French National Railway Corporation") ( SNCF), and was r ...

. Both of these two French flagship trains were replaced by

TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...

and

Thalys Thalys (French: ) is a French-Belgian high-speed train operator originally built around the LGV Nord high-speed line between Paris and Brussels. This track is shared with Eurostar trains that go from Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam to London via Li ...

from 1982 (Mistral) to 1996 (Étoile du Nord). The ''Tren Francés'' was formed by 12 coaches and a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

-built diesel locomotive.The ''Tren Francés'' on cubacasas.net
/ref> Over the years, the coaches deteriorated. In 2019, the service was replaced by a new service using Chinese-built coaches.

Overview

The ''Tren Francés'' (also spelled ''El Francés'' or ''Especial''),
on hicuba.com named after the country of origin of the coaches (

), donated by SNCF to FFCC in 2001,seat61.com - no longer mentions Tren Francés
/ref>Ferrocarriles de Cuba (actuality)
on EcuRed was the fastest long-distance service in Cuba. It had the most modern coaches and was divided into two classes named ''primera especial'' (1st) and ''primera'' (nominally 1st, identifiable as 2nd). There were no

sleeping car The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car (rail), passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car. ...

s, couchettes or car-carrying wagons.

Route

Travelling along the Havana-Santiago line, the ''Tren Francés'' made intermediate stops only at the main cities of Santa Clara and

Camagüey Camagüey () is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third-largest city with more than 321,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province. It was founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe in 1514, by S ...

. Other important cities traversed along the route were

Matanzas Matanzas (Cuban ) is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas. Known for its poets, culture, and Afro-Cuban folklore, it is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas (Spanish ''Bahia de Matanzas''), east ...

, Colón,

Ciego de Ávila Ciego de Ávila City () is a city in the central part of Cuba and the capital of Ciego de Ávila Province. The city has a population of about 497.000, in a municipality of 756,373. Geography Ciego de Ávila lies on the Carretera Central highway ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, and Las Tunas. Some junction stations to nearby provincial capitals were served at

Cabaiguán Cabaiguán () is a municipality and town in the province of Sancti Spíritus, Cuba. With an urban population of 30,135 is the 3rd largest town of the province. Overview It was founded in 1894, and established as a municipality in 1926. The munic ...

(for

Sancti Spíritus Sancti Spíritus () is a municipality and capital city of the province of Sancti Spíritus Province, Sancti Spíritus in central Cuba and one of the oldest Cuban European settlements. Sancti Spíritus is the genitive case of Latin language, Lat ...

) and

Cacocum Cacocum is a municipality and town in the Holguín Province of Cuba. Overview It is located south of the city of Holguín and east of the Frank País International Airport towards the city of Bayamo on the Carretera Central Highway. The area i ...

(for

Holguín Holguín () is a municipality and city in Cuba, and the capital of Province of Holguín. After Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Camagüey, it is the fourth largest city in Cuba. History Before Columbus, the Taino people settled in huts made fro ...

). ;Havana – Santiago (eastbound)Cuban long-distance timetables at seat61.com
(section "Train times & fares") ;Santiago – Havana (westbound)

References

External links

*
"A train travel from Santiago de Cuba to Havana"
(''

Havana Times ''Havana Times'' is an independent Cuban blog and online magazine founded in 2008. The online publication is edited in Nicaragua. Most of its contributors live in Havana, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo. There are also Cuban contributors in Venez ...

'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Tren Frances Named passenger trains of Cuba Night trains 2001 establishments in Cuba

Overview

Route

See also

References

External links