We warmly welcome you to our 6th train driver's view video from France. We've seen some interesting lines so far including 3 along the French coast (which we can't offer in Switzerland), a mountain pass with a very interesting history (it's actually amazing that it's in operation today) and now we bring you a journey from the alpine section of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. See a playlist of all the videos here: • France Cab rides
We will be travelling from France's highest city - Briançon with its train station at 1'203 meters above sea level, all the way down to the coastal city of Marseille. As with most railways in France, the line has many stories to tell about its past. We'll be passing 31 closed stations and at least 5 former railway junctions that have been closed and have disappeared over time. Many of the closed stations are still there, some in ruins while others have become private homes. Where information was available I included dates of closure and a picture of the station in its former glory.
Probably the most interesting part for me, was discovering that 16 Km of the original line is now underwater. Due to a history of disastrous flooding, construction began in 1955 of what would then be Europe's largest dam to help regulate the water flow, further enable irrigation and bring hydro-electric power opportunities. In 1956, construction began of a new track section between Chorges and Embrun. It was opened in 1960, as the old line was submerged along with 2 stations, 4 tunnels and 2 notable viaducts. During maintenance of the dam every 10 years, the old line once again becomes visible.
What is even more interesting is a branch line that was planned to leave the line near Chorges and connect to Barcelonnette. Construction commenced in 1909 and in anticipation of the dam, elaborate measures were taken to ensure the line would not be hampered by the then anticipated 50 to 80 meters of water. Many structures were completed including about 6 Km of tunnels, a 300m S shaped viaduct and a 680m viaduct crossing the Durance and what was to become the "Lac de Serre-Ponçon" dam. Inevitably works were hampered by the wars and the project ended up being abandoned as the dam was to hold much more water than originally planned, however many of the structures still exist today.
Now to the recording. Due to heat issues with the camera we used (GoPro 8), the air conditioning had to be running. This had a negative effect on the audio. The sunlight caused a few issues.
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