Saint-Étienne to Andrézieux Railway

The railway line Saint- Étienne- Andrézieux is the oldest railway line in France and was taken on June 30, 1827 as first horse railway in continental Europe in operation, almost three years after the granting of the license to the operator Compagnie du chemin de fer de Saint -Etienne à la Loire. Concessionaire was Louis -Antoine Beaunier. The passenger was taken only on March 1, 1832. So first the 18 km long railway served only to freight, especially the transport of coal from Saint -Etienne to the Loire.

A major problem of this transport route was that the river below Andrézieux had such a strong gradient and corresponding flow that while driving laden ships down the river, but even unloaded could be upstream pulled hard, so that almost all newly built ships were leaving the port Andrézieux. This gave the occasion a little later to build two more railway lines:

• The route Roanne - Andrézieux, completed on November 15, 1833 through the Loire Valley northwards to Le Coteau in Roanne, where it was ordered much better to the navigability of the river. Two English locomotives were used since the commissioning of the first stage on August 1st, 1832 here.
• The railway line Saint -Etienne - Lyon, on the one already started with steam traction during construction in 1831, joined the coal field with the well-developed Rhone Valley.

Since 1844 coal was moved to the Rhone opposite to the original direction from the direction Andrézieux to Saint -Etienne and beyond. This was also introduced steam service between Saint -Etienne and Andrézieux. For this, the company purchased in 1844 two steam locomotives of Schneider & Cie in Le Creusot. A year long freight trains were pulled by steam, passenger trains with horse power, from 1845 all trains with steam. The line was extended over the years to just under 22 kilometers.

On September 30, 1853, the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Saint -Etienne à la Loire, the train Saint-Étienne- Lyon and the Compagnie du chemin de fer de la Loire united to form the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Rhône à la Loire, already on 26 December of the same year by the Compagnie du chemin de fer du Grand Central ( Great Central railway ) was taken. On July 19, 1857 arose from this and other large companies, the Compagnie des Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée.

Passenger traffic for (port ) Station Andrézieux was set in 1864, the freight over one hundred years later in 1980. The greater part of the route is as long been a part of the railway line from Saint -Etienne to Roanne.