The railway from Orléans to Montauban is an important French 544-kilometre long

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, that connects

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Montauban Montauban (, ; oc, Montalban ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, region of Occitania, Southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, an ...

and southern France via

Limoges Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region ...

. The railway was opened in several stages between 1847 and 1893, when the section from Limoges to

Brive-la-Gaillarde Brive-la-Gaillarde (; Limousin dialect of oc, Briva la Galharda) is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture and the largest city of the Corrèze department. It has around 46,000 inhabitants, while the population of the agglomeration was 7 ...

was finished.

Route

The Orléans–Montauban railway leaves the

Les Aubrais station The gare des Aubrais (before 2014: ''gare des Aubrais-Orléans'') is a main-line railway station located in the town of Fleury-les-Aubrais in Loiret, central France, and serving the greater Orléans district. It is situated on the Paris to Bordea ...

, entering its terminus

Montauban-Ville-Bourbon station Montauban or Montauban-Ville-Bourbon is a railway station serving the town of Montauban, Tarn-et-Garonne department, southwestern France. The station The station lies on the Bordeaux–Sète railway and it is the southern terminus of the Orléan ...

after a total length of 544 km.

Main stations

The main stations on the Orléans–Montauban railway are: *

Vierzon Vierzon () is a commune in the Cher department, Centre-Val de Loire, France. Geography A medium-sized town by the banks of the river Cher with some light industry and an area of forestry and farming to the north. It is situated some northwe ...

-Ville station * Châteauroux station *

Limoges-Bénédictins station Limoges-Bénédictins ( French: ''Gare de Limoges-Bénédictins'') is the main railway station of Limoges. It is situated on the Orléans–Montauban railway. It was named Bénédictins due to the presence of a Benedictine monastery closed duri ...

* Brive-la-Gaillarde station *

History

The section

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Châteauroux Châteauroux (; ; oc, Chasteurós) is the capital city of the French department of Indre, central France and the second-largest town in the province of Berry, after Bourges. Its residents are called ''Castelroussins'' () in French. Climate ...

was built and exploited by the ''Compagnie du Centre'', that became part of

Chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans Chemin or Le Chemin may refer to: Arts and media * ''Le chemin'' (Emmanuel Moire album), 2013 album by French singer Emmanuel Moire * ''Le chemin'' (Kyo album), 2003 album by French band Kyo ** "Le Chemin" (song), title song from same-titled Kyo ...

in 1852. The ''PO'' extended the railway afterwards. The first section that was opened in 1847 led from

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and 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 ...

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...

) to

Châteauroux Châteauroux (; ; oc, Chasteurós) is the capital city of the French department of Indre, central France and the second-largest town in the province of Berry, after Bourges. Its residents are called ''Castelroussins'' () in French. Climate ...

. The line was extended to

Argenton-sur-Creuse Argenton-sur-Creuse is a commune in the Indre department in central France. Geography Argenton-sur-Creuse lies on the river Creuse, about 28 km southwest of Châteauroux. Argenton-sur-Creuse station has rail connections to Vierzon, Limoges a ...

in 1854.

was reached in 1856. The opening of the Limoges–

Périgueux Périgueux (, ; oc, Peireguers or ) is a communes of France, commune in the Dordogne departments of France, department, in the administrative regions of France, administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Périgueux i ...

railway (1861), the Périgueux–

section of the

Coutras Coutras () is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Coutras station has rail connections to Bordeaux, Angoulême, Périgueux, Brive-la-Gaillarde and Limoges. History The Battle of Coutras, one of the ...

–

Tulle Tulle (; ) is a commune in central France. It is the third-largest town in the former region of Limousin and is the capital of the department of Corrèze, in the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Tulle is also the episcopal see of the Roman Cat ...

railway (1860) and the Brive-la-Gaillarde–

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 ...

railway (1858-1864) offered a much shorter connection between Paris and Toulouse than the existing line via Tours and Bordeaux. The opening of the

Nexon Nexon Co., Ltd. is a global video game publisher, listed in Japan, that specializes in online Virtual World games for PCs, consoles and mobile. Nexon is one of the world’s ten largest interactive game companies based on market capitalization a ...

–Brive-la-Gaillarde railway in 1875 shortened the distance by 69 km. The distance between Paris and Toulouse was shortened by a further 42 km by the opening of the Limoges–Montauban section of the Orléans–Montauban railway, in three stages:

Cahors Cahors (; oc, Caors ) is a commune in the western part of Southern France. It is the smallest prefecture among the 13 departments that constitute the Occitanie Region. The main city of the Lot department and the historical center of the Quer ...

–Montauban in 1884, Brive-la-Gaillarde–Cahors in 1891, and finally Limoges–Brive-la-Gaillarde via

Uzerche Uzerche (; oc, Usercha) is a commune in the Corrèze department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of central France. In 1787, the English writer Arthur Young described the town as "the pearl of the Limousin" because of its picturesque setting. ...

in 1893.

Services

The Orléans–Montauban railway is used by the following passenger services: *

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 ...

on the section between Orléans and Brive-la-Gaillarde *

Intercités Intercités (before September 2009: ''Corail Intercités'') is a brand name used by France’s national railway company, SNCF, to denote non high speed services on the 'classic' network in France. SNCF established the Intercités brand in January ...

from Bordeaux to Lyon on the section between Limoges and Saint-Sulpice-Laurière, and from Paris to Toulouse on the whole line *

TER Centre-Val de Loire TER Centre-Val de Loire (operated under the brand ''Rémi'' since 2019 and ''TER Centre'' prior to 2015) is the regional rail network serving Centre-Val de Loire ''région'' of France. Network The rail and bus network as of April 2022:

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 ...

and

TER Occitanie TER Occitanie or liO TER Occitanie is the regional rail network serving the region of Occitanie, southern France. It is operated by the French national railway company SNCF. It was formed in 2017 from the previous TER networks TER Languedoc-Rous ...

regional services on the whole line

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orleans-Montauban railway Railway lines in Centre-Val de Loire Railway lines in Nouvelle-Aquitaine Railway lines in Occitania (administrative region) Railway lines opened in 1893