-
Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
"la ligne des Causses" or "la ligne de l'Aubrac"
- Thread starter nlt
- Start date
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
godfreycomplex
Established Member
- Joined
- 23 Jun 2016
- Messages
- 1,328
Some trains are running, however the section between Andelat and Loubaresse, Cantal, is closed until October 31st for replacement of the pre-war (!) track. In addition to that there are rolling closures either side of Le Monastier, Lozère until the end of June.
Hourly Intercités from Paris-Bercy to Clermont via Vichy take about 3 and a half hours. There are Paris-gare de Lyon - Béziers TGVs, but bear in mind these are mostly the Paris-Barcelona trains so, infamously, they tend to fill up quickly.
Alternatively Ryanair fly to Béziers (and sometimes Rodez) from London
Hourly Intercités from Paris-Bercy to Clermont via Vichy take about 3 and a half hours. There are Paris-gare de Lyon - Béziers TGVs, but bear in mind these are mostly the Paris-Barcelona trains so, infamously, they tend to fill up quickly.
Alternatively Ryanair fly to Béziers (and sometimes Rodez) from London
dutchflyer
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 Oct 2013
- Messages
- 1,261
Just by chance having left Cl.Ferrand this morning, the Michelin-tyres city with its special ´tram´ that has no rails but 1 groove, these IC-still old style CoRail-run ev 2 or 3 hrs and certainly, nor have ever done so, every hour. ClFrd even has a few near hours when no trains at all leave it in any direction.
Came into there from St.Etienne via the Le-Puy-en-Velay line-quite scenic-and touristy
godfreycomplex
Established Member
- Joined
- 23 Jun 2016
- Messages
- 1,328
apologies I’m not really sure what happened with my timetable reading there but you are of course quite correct, my mistake
Gloster
Established Member
Try .europeanrailtimetable.eu . This is available in electronic form of some sort or other and is the best single volume timetable available. If you read French, Google ter occitanie horaires and follow from there. (If you don’t read French, give it a go - horaires means times in this sense.)
According to the SNCF App, only the IC Clermont to Neussargues is running. From there the IC train is replaced by a bus all the way to Béziers. That'd be a long bus ride, mostly along motorway to start with, but with views of the viaduct du Garabit rather than travelling over it.
If you are travelling from Clermont to Béziers you can leave around lunchtime (1256) and travel direct to Nîmes on a TER and change there for Béziers. This is a really delightful route, also very scenic, though somewhat busier than the route via Neussargues. Timewise it's about the same as going to Neussargues and getting the bus so I'd recommend via Nîmes.
From the UK you can get to Clermont Ferrand fairly easily in a day: 0931 London Saint Pancras to Paris (Eurostar) then 1400 IC train Paris Bercy to Clermont F arrive 1727. Clermont is a decent city for an overnight and morning explore before the lunchtime train the next day.
It seems no trains are running on the Neussargues to Béziers route at all at present not even short trips to/from Bédarieux or Millau are offered on the SNCF app, so suggest do the Nîmes route and save Ligne des Causes for next year.
If you are travelling from Clermont to Béziers you can leave around lunchtime (1256) and travel direct to Nîmes on a TER and change there for Béziers. This is a really delightful route, also very scenic, though somewhat busier than the route via Neussargues. Timewise it's about the same as going to Neussargues and getting the bus so I'd recommend via Nîmes.
From the UK you can get to Clermont Ferrand fairly easily in a day: 0931 London Saint Pancras to Paris (Eurostar) then 1400 IC train Paris Bercy to Clermont F arrive 1727. Clermont is a decent city for an overnight and morning explore before the lunchtime train the next day.
It seems no trains are running on the Neussargues to Béziers route at all at present not even short trips to/from Bédarieux or Millau are offered on the SNCF app, so suggest do the Nîmes route and save Ligne des Causes for next year.
Last edited:
Always go to the local region for the best information - the SNCF app risks only finding 'important' trains.
According to Languedoc Rousillon (always better for the Ligne de Causses than Auvergne / Auvergne Rhone Alpes region) the train is running south of St Chely d'Apcher:
https://ter-fiches-horaires.sncf.fr/publish/Travaux%20Aubrac%20du%204%20mars%20au%2010%20octobre.pdf
For many years now, St Chely d'Apcher has been the northern limit of 'sensible timetabling' as Region Languedoc has supported the continuation of (at least some) trains, whereas Auvergne region can't be ar*ed with the Causses line and would happily let it close
.
Agree, the IC train starts running again south of St Chely after 29June, assuming works completed by then. However the French railways society reports the line north of there is shut till 1/11/2024 due to track relaying.
That's what the PDF says. I would assume that the "full" TER service also resumes then, and the SNCF site thinks so!
SNCF
The Sncf-connect site is terrible to use, but it gives me the information for both routes accurately as far as I can see.
Alpine Rider
Member
You can usually find timetables on the relevant SNCF Regional TER website such as this one:
After years of minimal spend, SNCF are now investing in this route - replacing long sections of very ancient track and sleepers to remove speed restrictions and they are also carrying out improvements to numerous level crossings. This has resulted in a fair bit of local inconvenience with some fairly long deviations to use other crossings. Whilst La ligne de l@Aubrac was under threat of closure it has seen an uptick in passenger numbers following local cheap travel initatives - and possibly also a video blog by the "Tim Traveller"...
After years of minimal spend, SNCF are now investing in this route - replacing long sections of very ancient track and sleepers to remove speed restrictions and they are also carrying out improvements to numerous level crossings. This has resulted in a fair bit of local inconvenience with some fairly long deviations to use other crossings. Whilst La ligne de l@Aubrac was under threat of closure it has seen an uptick in passenger numbers following local cheap travel initatives - and possibly also a video blog by the "Tim Traveller"...
The trouble with the Ligne des Causses is that it serves very small population. France is already a thinly spread country demographically, and the area traversed by the Ligne des Causses is even less populated, such that since the private car became universally available to most people in France from the late 1960s the line has struggled to be relevant, but as ever with SNCF, this is not helped by the lack of a simple to understand timetable - the fabled French 'this train runs on schooldays but only when there isn't an 'r' in the month' and when the market day isn't taking place in marcheville' type timetabling.
Given the very limited traffic and potential, may be they should consider ditching the catenary and operate the line with diesel traction only ? Like they have done with a few lines in the Pyrenees already. I don't believe that electric operation is profitable with only a handful of trains a day.
The St Chely freight might justify maintaining the wires - the "Intercity" is a DMU, so is there any electric passenger N of Millau now?
If the IC is now always a DMU (it was last time I travelled) I believe the freight is the only regular scheduled electric train north of St Chely D'Apcher, since the electric EMU that used to form the southern portion of the IC train ceased.
I do wonder why diesel can't haul the freight, unless there's some axle loading issue on the historic track? Maybe the current project to replace historic track at the north end of the line could permit diesel traction thus rendering the catenary surplus to requirements,?
Sir Felix Pole
Member
The steel trains to St. Chély are now worked by pairs of BB60000s diesel-electrics.
BB60000
The early morning passenger service from Béziers to St. Chély and return was EMU worked - not sure if this is still the case with the new timetable.
The electrification would be of more use if it continued to Clermont Ferrand from Neussargues but it would be very difficult to justify. It is hard to believe that the line once had a through day and a through night train to Paris.
BB60000
The early morning passenger service from Béziers to St. Chély and return was EMU worked - not sure if this is still the case with the new timetable.
The electrification would be of more use if it continued to Clermont Ferrand from Neussargues but it would be very difficult to justify. It is hard to believe that the line once had a through day and a through night train to Paris.