Chemins de fer de la Corse

The Chemins de fer de la Corse ( CFC) is a railway company that connects the two ports of Bastia and Ajaccio on the east coast to the west coast of the French island of Corsica. It also opens up the north coast of the island with the coastal town of Calvi. The railway undertaking is a subsidiary of the French railway company SNCF and operates a single-track narrow gauge railway consistently with 1000 mm track width and a length of a total of 231 km.

The company was founded in 1983 after the total closure of the railway network was prevented due to the protests from the population. In the vernacular, the web is " La Micheline " and called for their troubled run on the extended rails on Corsican also "U Trinichellu " ( The Trembling ). Other names are " Trenucciu " (little train ) and " TGV " ( Train à Grande Vibration ).

Mainline Ajaccio Bastia

The main route has its starting point in the vicinity of the port of Bastia. On their way towards Ajaccio it runs only along the east coast of the island and then towards the interior of the island to the west coast. On their way, it gives the university town of Corte innerkorsischen a fast rail link to the sea. The track was built from 1888 to 1894, is 157.4 kilometers long and covers on their way through the island a height difference of 930 m with a maximum slope of 3%.

The main ridge of the Corsican high mountain passes under is below the 1163 m high Col de Vizzavona in the 3916 m long Vizzavona tunnel. This tunnel is straight applied so that you can see the light at the other end quite weak at one of its two ends. This design is very unusual that on a summit tunnel normally sets the highest point of a tunnel exactly in its center to allow easily run off the water penetrating the Gegenortvortrieb can. North of the tunnel there are several bends with short sweeping tunnels. In this rise of 140 m long and 80 m high crosses Vecchio Viaduct, whose design dates back to Gustave Eiffel. Another building is the two-kilometer long tunnel under the town of Bastia.

Branch line to Calvi

To power the CFC a branch line heard from the solitary to the mainline railway station Ponte Leccia over the coastal town of L' Ile- Rousse to Calvi port city on the north coast. The route opened in 1890 is 73.1 km long, first crosses also the Corsican mountains, only to lead to the second half from L' Ile- Rousse as " Tramway de Balagne " along the coast to Calvi. In the vernacular, this path " The Fiery Elias " is called. She has the railway station of Novella its highest point with 462 m and reaches 30 km further and returning to the sea level.

Disused tracks and failed projects

Until the Second World War, the former railway company ran a further 152 km long stretch along the east coast of the island. They branched off in Casamozza from the main line and led through the plane to Porto Vecchio, where in 1935 the continued construction direction Bonifacio was terminated at the southernmost point of the island. The line was completely destroyed in 1943 during the retreat of the German military from Africa and not rebuilt. Today, this former railway line serves with its bridge structures partly as a country road, partly as a trail leads through the Corsican maquis. A 50 km long section can be continuously explored by bicycle.

Other failed projects were planned connections from Caldaniccia near Ajaccio to Propriano on the west coast and Vico in the high mountains. Was also not pursued the planned direct flight from Calvi to Ajaccio via Porto, although the station of Calvi has already been created in accordance with this extension as a through station in the lateral position.

Management

The CFC maintains on its network a total of 32 tunnels, 76 medium and large bridges and 83 level level crossings. As vehicles eleven railcars for passenger, 77 freight cars and six diesel locomotives are available. A total of 221 ​​people are employed by the CFC, including 201 at a permanent job. Approximately 300,000 passengers use the CFC in the year, most of them are tourists (as of 1998). Major stations are located in Bastia, Casamozza, Ponte Leccia, Corte, Ajaccio and Calvi. The fully equipped main workshop of the company is located near the railway station of Casamozza.

Used locomotives

The motor coaches used for passenger have a very different ages, the modern vehicles have the primary traffic load on the core route Bastia- Ajaccio. On the Tramway de Balagne between L' Ile- Rousse and Calvi to operate until 2008, however, railcar manufacturer Renault from 1949 to corresponding passenger cars. Meanwhile, here more modern vehicles are used and the old railcars are only a reserve. The vehicles offer for passengers depending on the series between 40 and 120 seats.

The replacement of the steam locomotives began on the island very early. Already in 1937, operated on the main line rail cars with diesel engines of the French company billiards. Accelerated by the devastation of the Second World War ended the use of the last steam locomotive 1954. For freight were in the 1960s, two diesel locomotives of the type BB400 manufacturer CFD (BB 404 and 405 ) is purchased. Since 1994 and 2009 respectively, further locomotives of two similar, but significantly more types of motorized come as BB 406-408 used, which were previously used for the Company Speno among others in Germany as DB class 715 in use.

In order to modernize the railway operations fundamentally, ordered the Corsican regional government 15 new railcars of the type AMG800 of CFD. The 40 meter long vehicles offer a low floor entry and to 100 km / h top speed reached. The first vehicle was delivered to the island for test drives in 2007. Furthermore, the entire rail network is being renovated; beyond improvements such as electrification of the network are not provided. At present, the issue of 110 million euros for the maintenance of the track and investments in vehicles is planned.

In spring 2010, all goods delivered until then AMG 800 had to be pulled from the market for several months because of serious technical defects ( inter alia brakes, drive shafts and air conditioning). The considerably thinned schedule has since been maintained mainly by bus, but you also wanted to reactivate some of the decommissioned old railcars.

Schedule

The timetable is relatively sparsely equipped: Two daily connections from Bastia to Calvi, four to five daily connections from Bastia to Ajaccio, which are then driven in multiple traction as needed with up to three railcars. Added to this is a heavy traffic on weekdays between Bastia and Casamozza on the desserts suburbaine de Bastia with 16 connections ( four Sundays), as well as trips in the two- hour intervals on the Tramway de Balagne during the summer season. In addition, since 2010 a suburban services between Ajaccio and Ajaccio Mezzana about the airport there with 14 connections on weekdays and three on Sundays.

The cost of a ticket within the usual framework of local public transport. For tourists the whole year is offered on a seven- day free network card. Due to the operation of more than 30 stations and stops, the journey takes on the main route between Bastia and Ajaccio about four hours. On the branch line, the two trains from Ponte Leccia to Calvi need a travel time of one hour and 40 minutes.

Economics and business aspects

The cost recovery of operation arises because of tourism as a main source of income on the island is as difficult as the actual season on the island is limited to ten weeks of summer. The main route is primarily of interest for hikers who want to tackle the innerkorsischen GR 20. The train station of Vizzavona is exactly on the half of this walk only from mid June to end of October alpine trail. Nevertheless, the year is driven over to give the local population during the winter months, the opportunity to reach the two largest cities on the island without major detours. For this reason, the main line is cleared snow in the winter, which is problematic in the pass roads through the mountains innerkorsische.

The Tramway de Balagne opens in summer the secluded beaches in the north of the island, which leads to no road connection. Therefore, the section between Calvi and L' Ile -Rousse has for tourism also of considerable importance.

Freight transport plays a decisive role in contrast to rail transport. Since the island has no significant mineral resources, the transportation of goods to agricultural and forestry products as well as their own use of the railway company limited. For a transit between the ports is also missing the transport volume, which alone the fact is already evident that the train tracks only rich in Ajaccio up to the quay walls. There are also special-purpose vehicles such as water tankers to fight again and again flaring up on the island of forest fires.

Future

Once rehabilitated by 2010 almost the entire route network and use tracks and signaling systems have been renewed and are upgrading, the main route to 100, the mileage performance of today 850,000 miles 2010 should be doubled in the year. The previously trains running on the mainline rail car should be completely replaced by the new AMG800 and the travel time between Bastia and Ajaccio be reduced to 2:45. The previous railcars should be used here on the branch line to Calvi. However, one in 2010 was solid at maintenance of AMG800 that this particular on the brakes has problems with excessive wear, which is why all AMG800 vehicles were withdrawn from circulation. And when there had not already waited too many of the old vehicles at this time, were 2011 not enough vehicles available to maintain the existing schedule, so some buses replace the rides, partially account for trips but also replacement. Since November 2011, are again four AMG800 available since the summer of 2012 a total of 8

Further, there are considerations to reactivate the former route along the east coast at least partially to maquis Moriani and integrate into suburban services from Bastia. An over maquis Moriani beyond reactivation is unlikely.

Summary

In contrast to the pathways of the European mainland, the operation of the CFC is characterized by several features, which result primarily from the insularity of Corsica. The company has no possibility of sharing of infrastructure with other railroads, and is therefore forced to provide them itself. This manifests itself primarily in the need for a separate large workshop for all repair work and also in the fact that some very old vehicles on the routes that give the operation in a way, the painting of a railway museum.

On the other hand, the speeds driven on all sections are surprisingly high, to the newly built railroads, for example, near Ajaccio reach the railcar speeds of up to 90 km / h In addition, tight bends and deep gorges to the track edges; the ride on the CFC is considered by many tourists as an adventure.