Pau–Canfranc railway
The Pau–Canfranc railway is a partially closed long international single-track standard gauge railway line connecting Pau in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region of France, climbing via the Gave d'Aspe valley and under the Pyrenees to Canfranc in Spain. The line is part of the transport infra-structure between Bordeaux and Zaragoza, which now bears the modern name of the Goya Line, from the painter Francisco de Goya who was born near Zaragoza and died in Bordeaux.
Opened and electrified in 1928, it was closed south of Bedous after a major derailment accident on 27 March 1970, which destroyed the L'Estanguet bridge south of Accous. Closed to passengers from 30 May 1980, the line from Oloron-Sainte-Marie to Bedous remained open for freight traffic until 1985.
The residual section between Pau and Oloron is still used by TER Aquitaine passenger trains, with a branch to Arudy from Buzy. Buses run from Oloron-Sainte-Marie to Canfranc, and trains still run from Canfranc International Railway Station, departing south to Jaca and Zaragoza. In August 2014, SNCF began work on a reopening project to Bedous, with the line reopened on 1 July 2016.
History
Proposal to build
The legal title to build the Pau to Oloron-Sainte-Marie section was given to the Chemins de fer du Midi, on signing of a memorandum between the company and the Minister of Agriculture, Trade and Public Works on 10 August 1868. The agreement was approved by an imperial decree on the same date, and declared a public utility and definitively granted by a law on 23 March 1874. After completing construction, this section came into operation in 1883.On 17 July 1879 a law was passed, covering 181 ranking railway lines of general interest. No.178 was a line from "Oloron in Bedous ", and further a line from "Oloron to Puyoô in Saint-Palais, by the Gave Oloron Valley". Subsequently, on 17 July 1886 No.179 was legally titled to the Chemins de fer du Midi by a separate law. The Oloron to Bedous section was declared a public utility, with the concession confirmed on 27 June 1897; the latter proposed section to Puyoô was never built, cancelled by a law on 8 July 1900.
International section
The international section from Bedous into Spain, was the subject of an international convention between France and Spain signed on 18 August 1904. Approved by a French law on 10 January 1907 and promulgated by a decree on 6 February 1907, the concession to build was granted to the Chemins de fer du Midi after an agreement with the Minister of Public Works was signed on 20 June 1907, and declared a public utility by a law 2 August 1907.The Franco-Spanish convention was amended by a protocol signed on 15 April 1908, which provided that the required Somport tunnel would be equipped with a track, and that the Spanish government would fund a suitable interchange station on their border. The protocol was enacted by a decree on 25 January 1909.
Construction of the Somport tunnel was inaugurated on 12 July 1912, and after delays in its construction due to World War I, completed in 1915. Spanish project engineer Ramírez de Dampierre began construction of the Canfranc International Railway Station in 1923, and it was formally opened on 18 July 1928, in the presence of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and the president of the French Republic Gaston Doumergue.
Operations
On full opening, the line converted immediately to overhead line electrification at 1500 V DC. The line is built to, but on connecting to the Iberian gauge at Canfranc, the enlarged station there allows for suitable interchange facilities.From Pau, the line follows the Gave d'Aspe valley, reaching Bedous in a relatively flat terrain. After this it climbs into the Pyrénées Mountains, with an average gradient of to Etsaut, and then to the tunnel at Somport, where the line reaches its maximum altitude of. To reach this point from Bedous, the steeply climbing line traverses both sharp curves, and passes through 14 tunnels including the helical tunnel at Forges-d'Abel.
Due to the Franco-Spanish international convention under which it was built, the Somport tunnel and quasi-French control of the French-side of Canfranc international railway station continued during World War II. The Spanish authorities came to an operational agreement with the German Nazi Wehrmacht authorities, whereby passenger train services continued, with freight-trains carrying mined Tungsten north, and French grain plus trans-shipped Swiss gold south.
Closure
On 20 March 1970 a nine-car corn train left Pau for Canfranc, headed by two SNCF BB Midi locomotives, No.4227 and 4235. Having passed the station at Lescun Cette-Eygun, they started to climb the Aspe valley towards Etsaut and Urdos. This was early morning and the tracks were iced due to the humid cold, causing wheel slippage while through the 43mm/m ramp.The convoy came to a stop.
Both locomotives' sandboxes were empty, and the engineers decided to dispose pebbles on the rails as a palliative. They set both locomotives on rheostatic braking and climbed down the cabin. However, the substation at Urdos was not working, resulting in the line voltage to be 900 Volts DC instead of the nominal 1500 Volts; as a result, the Bedous substation breakers tripped, leaving the unmanned train to free wheel backwards the climb.
The train passed through Lescun Cette-Eygun station at more than, leaving no time for the automatic road crossing to close. On reaching the bridge over Estanguet river at such a speed, the resulting movement of the cars put them out of gauge. The first car consequently hit the bridge and derailed the whole train, destroying the bridge. No one was killed or injured in the accident.
The accident, happening two weeks before Good Friday, resulted in the railway service being replaced on a temporary basis with connecting buses from Bedous. Although the bridge was replaceable, the SNCF, with major operating and balance sheet debts, argued against replacement, and hence have terminated services since at Bedous.
Due to its length of and resultant cost of maintenance, the Somport railway tunnel was converted after the line was partially closed in 1970, and rebuilt like a tramway. The railway lines were removed, and track-sections inset into a hard road-like surface, allowing for joint-passage of both trains and road vehicles. During the construction of the Somport road tunnel, 17 passageways were cut into the railway tunnel, to allow for escape should a fire ever break out when traffic is going through the tunnel.
Stations
The main stations on the line are:| Name | Image | PK | Distance from Pau | Altitude | Status | Notes |
| Pau | 215.7 | 0.0 | 178 | Open | Connections to Bordeaux, Toulouse and Bayonne | |
| Buzy | 235.3 | 19.5 | 376 | Open | Trains to Arudy, buses to Laruns | |
| Oloron-Sainte-Marie | 250.6 | 34.9 | 220 | Open | ||
| Lurbe-St-Christau | 259.4 | 43.7 | 267 | Open | ||
| Bedous | 275.3 | 59.6 | 407 | Open | Buses to Canfranc | |
| Urdos | 290.4 | 74.7 | 714 | Closed | ||
| Canfranc | 308.5 | 92.8 | 1195 | Open | Buses to Bedous, trains to Jaca and Zaragoza |
Note. The origin of PK is in Toulouse
Renovation and reopening
In present economic development, the transport route beneath the Aspe peak via the Gave d'Aspe valley is turning from a relatively unknown into a major transport channel. This is not only due to the regional pressure between Bordeaux and Zaragoza, but also the importance of the international route between Paris and Valencia. These economic pressures - in part driven by the General Motors plant located in Zaragoza - have in recent years resulted in heavy truck and car traffic on the roads of the upper Gave d'Aspe valley, and increased accidents.As a result, the French government placed pressure on SNCF to reopen the route to at least Bedous, to allow the safe opening of the upper valley to tourists and also servicing regional passenger traffic. This would then allow due economic discussion to take place between the French and Spanish governments over opening the residual section to Canfranc, something which SNCF considers not in best modern operational interests, taking into account the loading gauge restrictions of the helical tunnel at Forges-d'Abel. However, supporters point out that at no point does the current line infrastructure fall below a radius of, and that minimum clearance up to the helical tunnel is a minimum of, well in accordance with modern secondary-line criteria.
Following a landslide on the RN 134 in January 2008, and the resultant need to use the Sens tunnel near Etsaut, in May 2008 president of the Aquitaine region Alain Rousset invited SNCF President Guillaume Pepy to the line, during which Pepy agreed in principle to support reopening the line.
Pau to Oloron-Sainte-Marie
In September 2008, the major electrical substation which supplied power on the Pau to Oloron-Sainte-Marie section was turned off and removed, to permit the commercial expansion of an industrial estate. In September 2010, the line was closed for six months to allow major works to be undertaken, both to the infrastructure and environment. The entire line infrastructure, including all ballast and the redundant Midi-catenary, was removed, the roadways cleared and new drainage built. Then new ballast and lines were installed, laid out to allow later possible electrification. Finally, TER Aquitaine replaced the previously used SNCF Class X 2200 railcar units with modern SNCF Class X 73500.Agreement to reopen to Canfranc
Since the mid-2000s, the Aquitaine region has supported the lines reopening. On 15 March 2013 Alain Rousset and Luisa Fernanda Rudi Ubeda signed a Memorandum of Understanding, for a plan of cross-border cooperation up until 2020. The memorandum sets a timetable for reopening of the line in two phases, the Oloron section Bedous in 2015, then Bedous section of Canfranc in 2020. Subsequently, the Autonomous Community of Aragon acquired Canfranc station from RENFE, with a plan to restore and develop it as a catalyst for the region.After signing the memorandum, the Aquitaine Regional Council commissioned SNCF to undertake preliminary studies on opening the section from Oloron-Sainte-Marie to Bedous, and to survey the whole line to Canfranc. The study found that all tunnels on the line were in good condition, except for the sidewall of Peilhou tunnel that had collapsed. Similarly, the bridges are still in place, except south of Bedous towards Canfranc there are three major areas of work required:
- Estanguet bridge, destroyed by the 1970 accident
- Bigue bridge over the river Aspe, south of Accous. The bridge was destroyed by a flood on 5 October 1992. Since then the building of the RN 134 bypass road from Bedous and Accous has also removed the approach infrastructure
- Peilhou and Serbers viaducts. During the construction of the RN 134, retaining the viaducts would have created too sharp a curve on the road. Resultantly, it was agreed to keep both viaducts intact but remove one approach embankment of each viaduct, to enable the creation of a wider road.
Reopening of Oloron-Sainte-Marie to Bedous
SNCF were commissioned by ARC to undertake full costings and present a project plan for the reopening of the Oloron-Sainte-Marie to Bedous section. The SNCF reported that substantial work was required, including the replacement of 12 bridge decks, rebuilding of all road crossings to modern unmanned standards, and full renovation of all stations. Further, SNCF stated the requirement of modern landslide protection along the line. The ARC announced that the project was valued Eur122M, with Eur100M coming from ARC's budget and a minimum of Eur30M coming from other sources, mainly the French government and EU grants.Following delays in agreeing the budget funding, SNCF began work on 26 September 2014 with a projected opening to Bedous by March 2016. In a replication of the project to renovate the Pau to Oloron-Sainte-Marie section, the project included: removal of all line infrastructure; renovation of all earthworks and bridges; removal of two road crossings, renovation of all others to modern unmanned standards; installation of the required landslide protection and matts; and then relaying with new ballast, concrete sleepers and steel rails.
SNCF proposed installation of Automatic Block restricted permissiveness signalling between Oloron and Bedous. There will be three sections: Bidos, Lurbe-Saint-Christau and Bedous.