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Canfranc - Europe's second biggest railway station?

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Glenmutchkin

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http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-41445860

I spotted this piece on the BBC website and expected to read some sort of guff about ghost trains.

Instead I found an article about an abandoned station on the Franco-Spanish border. Is the claim bolded below in any way credible?

In the early 1930s, as few as 50 passengers a day were using Europe's second-biggest train station. And then things got worse. During the Spanish Civil War, Franco ordered the tunnels on the Spanish side sealed off, to prevent Republican rebels from smuggling weapons in
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High Dyke

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Glenmutchkin said:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-41445860

I spotted this piece on the BBC website and expected to read some sort of guff about ghost trains.

Instead I found an article about an abandoned station on the Franco-Spanish border. Is the claim bolded below in any way credible?
Click to expand...
Other info here: http://notatherdesk.com/travel/exploring-canfranc-railway-station/
At the time of its opening in 1928, the Canfranc Station was the biggest in Europe. That impressive fact was not enough though to spare it some problems. The standard-gauge railways used across Europe were not compatible with Spanish broad-gauge ones therefore each train had to stop in Canfranc and all people as well as goods had to change trains. This transfer plus additional custom control created a logistic nightmare with unavoidable delays leading to financial losses.

During the Spanish Civil War the station was taken over by the army and the tunnel was closed. Once the Second World War broke the route through the Pyrenees acted as the escape route for many Jewish people. Max Ernst and Marc Chagall were among other artists and intellectuals smuggled out of Europe to the U
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Groningen

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It is more easily to cross the border at Cerbere or Hendaye. So why was still station so important in the mountains? The station remains, but the tracks have gone?
 
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edwin_m

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Groningen said:
It is more easily to cross the border at Cerbere or Hendaye. So why was still station so important in the mountains? The station remains, but the tracks have gone?
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I think the story mentioned there is still an infrequent service from the Spanish side.

However I agree it is hard to see the rationale for such as grandiose scheme here. It would be the quickest way into France from Zaragoza, but for any other of the major Spanish cities one of the coastal routes would be shorter or similar length, and probably quicker given the less mountainous terrain.
 
squizzler

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The timing of this article is interesting in light of Catalonia trying to engineer its independence in the controversial referendum. If Catalonia breaks away from Spain will it become more desirable to have a direct route to France that skips Barcelona?
 
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Groningen

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Independent or not; i think that transportation will not suffer. Will Catalonia leave or stay in the EU or will it be an outside border with Spain and France. Will they keep the EU?

At this moment there are 4 direct and 1 with change from Toulouse to Latour de Carol-Enveitg. The connections to Barcelona are bad with a wait of 61, 118 and 65 minutes. If my Internet information is correct! The last 2 trains from Toulouse have no connection to Barcelona.
 
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daikilo

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edwin_m said:
I think the story mentioned there is still an infrequent service from the Spanish side.

However I agree it is hard to see the rationale for such as grandiose scheme here. It would be the quickest way into France from Zaragoza, but for any other of the major Spanish cities one of the coastal routes would be shorter or similar length, and probably quicker given the less mountainous terrain.
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Yes, there is a broad gauge DMU service on the Spanish side, which is actually in the autonomous region of Aragon.

The line has been partially reinstated on the French side, currently reaching Bedous, with a coach connection from there to Canfranc. Studies are under way for the remainder with a target for opening in 2024. This will include the rebuilding of the bridge that was destroyed during a derailment in 1970 and caused the line to close.
 
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AndrewE

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Groningen said:
It is more easily to cross the border at Cerbere or Hendaye. So why was still station so important in the mountains? The station remains, but the tracks have gone?
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I think the volume of freight was so great that it was worth building another route, even if it was single and went through the mountains. The station building had all the border and customs control facilities. We forget now just how long (and how much space) it took for everyone on a train to queue, show their suitcases and maybe have them searched too.

With the two-gauge single platform layout the platform length has to be able to hold both standard and broad-gauge trains, plus the diamond crossing half-way along. You can't quite see it on Google earth, (https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...0x5d8834bdb8642d4d!8m2!3d42.465035!4d1.890716) but when we were there the boad and standard gauge trains used the "wrong" end of the station, so that the French standard gauge trains had cross-platform interchange with the petit train jaune.
 
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daikilo

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AndrewE said:
I think the volume of freight was so great that it was worth building another route, even if it was single and went through the mountains. The station building had all the border and customs control facilities. We forget now just how long (and how much space) it took for everyone on a train to queue, show their suitcases and maybe have them searched too.

With the two-gauge single platform layout the platform length has to be able to hold both standard and broad-gauge trains, plus the diamond crossing half-way along.
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As far as I can recall, the Spanish platform track is on the western side of the platform whilst the French was on the eastern side. Various sidings of the respective companies were located adjacent to the platform tracks with additional Spanish tracks (mainly for freight) also on the eastern side. I cannot recall there being any dual gauge tracks.
 
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AndrewE

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daikilo said:
As far as I can recall, the Spanish platform track is on the western side of the platform whilst the French was on the eastern side. Various sidings of the respective companies were located adjacent to the platform tracks with additional Spanish tracks (mainly for freight) also on the eastern side. I cannot recall there being any dual gauge tracks.
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I take it you mean Canfranc... There weren't any dual gauge tracks at La Tour but I thought the layout was odd, I didn't see inside Canfranc It certainly makes sense to have separate broad and standard gauge sides.
 
Tim R-T-C

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Groningen said:
Independent or not; i think that transportation will not suffer. Will Catalonia leave or stay in the EU or will it be an outside border with Spain and France. Will they keep the EU?
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Like the Scottish referendum, no-one really knows the answer to this. I suspect like Brexit, it would be a lengthy, uncertain negotiation with strong feelings on both sides.

Given their attitudes towards the referendum, I think the Spanish Government re-routing services away from Catalan soil if independence ever happened couldn't be ruled out, even just out of spite. Obviously they will want to have their own direct links to France as well and not be reliant on transport links controlled by another country.
 
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daikilo

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Bletchleyite said:
The Spaniards have previous with Gib - I expect we will see some of the same awkward silliness, and that's happened with us as an EU member.
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They have had a tough time with the Basque region as well. The difference is that Catalonia is generally considered to be financially self-supporting (and some say supporting the rest of Spain). That said, Canfranc is in Aragon, not Catalonia.
 
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61653 HTAFC

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daikilo said:
They have had a tough time with the Basque region as well. The difference is that Catalonia is generally considered to be financially self-supporting (and some say supporting the rest of Spain). That said, Canfranc is in Aragon, not Catalonia.
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Which might be one thing that could help a revival of the route in the event of Catalonia becoming independent. That said, the French Catalans are only slightly less independent in thought and spirit than those on the Spanish side so we may see the rise of a tandem independence movement on the French side...

The border station at Latour de Carol is interesting as it's one of the only (if not THE only) stations in the world where 3 gauges meet at a single station: SNCF standard; SNCF metre-gauge (ligne de Cerdagne); and RENFE Iberian broad gauge.
 
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AndrewE

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Hornet said:
Some good photo's here:-

http://desertedplaces.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-abandoned-canfranc-international.html
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Thanks for the link to the photos, it brings back memories of seeing the Spanish DMU from outside the real station after getting an SNCF bus over from wherever the train stopped in France then (maybe Oloron or even Bedous) ... The French maintained the "rail" service that way and I think that FIP (International) free passes were honoured too.

Interestingly one of the shots seems to show mixed-gauge track.
 
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daikilo

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AndrewE said:
Thanks for the link to the photos, it brings back memories of seeing the Spanish DMU from outside the real station after getting an SNCF bus over from wherever the train stopped in France then (maybe Oloron or even Bedous) ... The French maintained the "rail" service that way and I think that FIP (International) free passes were honoured too.

Interestingly one of the shots seems to show mixed-gauge track.
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As far as I am aware, following the accident in 1970 the line was cut back to Oloron and reopened to Bedous in 2016;

I agree that one of the photos does appear to show dual gauge; that track is on the "French" side of the station probably one or two tracks out from the platform.
 
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Groningen

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This is somewhat outside this topic, but the King of Spain Felipe VI will speak to the country in 1 hour on television.
 
Busaholic

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The article I read said there are still two services a day (presumably in each direction) which use the platforms but not any other part of the station buildings.
 
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daikilo

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Busaholic said:
The article I read said there are still two services a day (presumably in each direction) which use the platforms but not any other part of the station buildings.
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Yes, they use the southern end of the western platform face, an early morning departure which overnights in Canfranc, and a late afternoon.
 
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MarcVD

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61653 HTAFC said:
The border station at Latour de Carol is interesting as it's one of the only (if not THE only) stations in the world where 3 gauges meet at a single station: SNCF standard; SNCF metre-gauge (ligne de Cerdagne); and RENFE Iberian broad gauge.
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Not very far from there you have Hendaye which has 3 gauges too, standard, iberian, and metric.

Envoyé de mon SM-T819 en utilisant Tapatalk
 
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