Lyon–Geneva railway
The railway line Lyon -Genève is a cross-border rail link between France and Switzerland. The French route segment is owned by the French Réseau Ferré de France society infrastructure ( RFF). The section is traversed by trains of long-distance and regional traffic. The lying on Swiss soil section between Geneva and La Plaine heard the SBB that operate there regional traffic. Geneva -La Plaine is the only DC current path of the SBB network.
- 3.1 SBB
- 3.2 SNCF
Course
The track has a length of approximately 170 kilometers, and electrified double track along its entire length. It starts at the Lyon -Perrache station, travels around south-east of the city center and leads from Lyon -Saint -Clair to the east. Until Ambérieu -en- Bugey railway passes through relatively flat terrain at a short distance to Autoroute 42 Then it follows the foot of the Alps and the Jura hills after Culoz. Later it goes up the river Rhône along the French-Swiss border near La Plaine. The Geneva metropolitan area, the path turns more on the Rhône and finally ends at the main station (Gare de Cornavin ).
History
Opening track
After an existing idea since 1830 Napoleon III granted. on 10 June 1853, the concession of a rail link between Lyon and Geneva, including branch lines to Mâcon and Bourg -en- Bresse. The line of Ambérieu to Mâcon enabled a connection between Paris and Geneva with large-scale bypass Lyons. In the same year, the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Lyon à Genève was founded for the purpose of construction, which in 1855 a study about possible stations between Ambérieu and the Swiss border, made and published a possible project on 15 December 1855. 1854, work began on the first section. On June 23, 1856, the first section between Lyon -Saint Clair and Ambérieu could be opened to traffic. On 10 October the same year, the portion Lyon Guillotière -Lyon -Perrache was taken during the opening of the railway line between Paris and Marseille in operation, even if the Perrache station was inaugurated in 1857. For December 19, 1855 merged the Compagnie de Lyon -Genève with the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Lyon à Méditerranée. Until May 7, 1857, the route was east of Ambérieu extended until Seyssel. On July 19, 1857, the Compagnie de Lyon- Méditerranée merged with the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Lyon to the Compagnie des Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM ), which officially took over the route from 1858. In the same year, on March 18, the section between Seyssel and Geneva went into operation. The gap closure was completed in 1859, first on June 1, with the extension of Saint- Clair to Lyon - Brotteaux, and then on November 24 with the opening of the final piece Lyon Brotteaux Lyon Guillotière. In 1938 the PLM to the SNCF, which thus took over the route.
The section of Geneva -La Plaine went on January 1, 1913 due to a Franco-Swiss Convention on the SBB. SBB have since been responsible for regional transport. Long-distance transport remained the responsibility of the PLM or the SNCF.
Electrification
1945 planned the SBB, with its current system 15,000 kilovolt electrify the Swiss leg section 16 ⅔ hertz. After the liberation of France, the SNCF expressed their intention to operate their portion and electrically. It was agreed that French 1500 volt DC system follow through to Geneva.
In the first section, Lyon -Perrache -Lyon -Saint- Clair, the electrical equipment was taken on December 14, 1952. September 22, 1953, the route was provided to Culoz under tension before to 16 December 1953, the section was electrified to Bellegarde. The final piece between Bellegarde and Geneva was electrified until 20 September 1956.
Further development
1980 was built at Culoz a detour curve to allow for train movements Geneva Grenoble -Valence via a direct connection without a hairpin in Culoz. Initially, this compound served as a major route in the most recent period of service between Geneva and southern France, but operated more with operation Lyons. On 27 September 1981, the route was first served by TGV trains: It reversed two pairs of trains daily between Paris and Geneva, which took advantage of the distance between Geneva and Ambérieu, and then via the branch line to Bourg -en- Bresse -Mâcon on track Paris -Marseille reached. On May 12, 1983, the station Lyon- Brotteaux was shut down. A day later it was replaced by the new station Lyon Part Dieu, the slow run for its money as the most important railway station in the city the previous Hauptbahnhof Perrache. In May 1987, the section between Cornavin and the new service station La Châtelaine was expanded to three tracks with the extension of the SBB AC route from Lausanne to Geneva Airport. The new route took over the old, above-ground route to Lyon, which is now run by a single-track tunnel. Since the reactivation of the railway line Bourg -en- Bresse Bellegarde in December 2010, the TGV relation Geneva - Paris from Bellegarde go about this to Bourg -en- Bresse, close to there on the line to Macon. This means shortening the travel time between Paris and Geneva by up to 20 minutes. Switzerland has been involved in the reactivation and reconstruction measures with 110 million euros.
The stop " Cointrin " was renamed the timetable change 11 December, 2011 " Vernier " of the west railway station » Vernier - Meyrin " to " Meyrin ". This renaming is done at the request of the Canton of Geneva, which also took over the costs. This is the confusion with the nearby airport of Geneva - Its old name Aéroport de Genève -Cointrin is - minimizes whose name is station Genève Aéroport.
Operation
The surgical operation is carried out by SNCF and SBB. Between Geneva and Lyon -Perrache only run a few through trains, mainly may have to change the station Lyon Part-Dieu.
SBB
SBB operates since 1994 every half hour regional trains as Rhône Express Régional between Geneva and La Plaine, which are partially extended since 2001 to Bellegarde .. SBB has this special DC power vehicles of the type Bem 550 purchased, which of the railcar of the line m1 Metro Lausanne are derived. It also FLIRT EMUs are used.
SNCF
The SNCF uses the route in various relations in local and long-distance transport:
The trunk is used by the TGV Paris -Geneva relations ( between Bellegarde and Geneva ) and Marseille / Montpellier- Geneva ( between Lyon Part Dieu and Geneva). All relations also hold in Bellegarde. The TGV service between Paris and Milan no longer, but uses the wrong route through a connecting link between Lyon -Saint -Exupéry TGV and Chambéry train station.
The TER Rhône -Alpes operates in various relations of the journey. Between Lyon Part Dieu and Geneva operate regional express trains with a stop in Bellegarde, Seyssel, Culoz, Virieu and Ambérieu. From Lyon, she still runs to Saint -Gervais- les- Bains and Evian- les- Bains.
Future
In 2014, the Umelektrifizierung of the section from Geneva to Bellegarde to 25 kilovolts is planned 50 Hertz alternating current. For this, the route of Longeray must be locked to Geneva -Cornavin for rail traffic from 15 July until 25 August. On the Swiss side new catenary poles were erected with the boom of early 2013 to September 2013. In Bellegarde the conversion work on the overhead line in September 2013 have begun. A new substation is at Verbois under construction and is all the way from Geneva to provide after Longeray with electricity. The new system separation point of 25 kV to 1.5 kV is located, west of the station Bellegarde, located at km 130.2. Further work concerning the signal system on the Swiss side of the automatic block system will be used with lane change operation, on the French side of the block automatique lumineux (BAL ) will be used. In addition, then, from December 2015, trains to and from France and the SBB rail from the airport, from the branch Châtelaine, use. These three switchable (15 kV/25 kV) block sections are built, which make it possible to let run on the same track, trains which are powered by different power systems. This is the timetable stability and the capacity can be increased.