Grande Ceinture line
Grande Ceinture line | |||
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The Grande Ceinture line (French: Ligne de Grande Ceinture, English: Big Belt Line) is a railway line around Paris, located 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from the Boulevard Périphérique. The decision to build it was taken at the end of the 19th century, to connect the radial lines linking the capital to the provinces and provide relief to the busy Petite Ceinture Line (English: Small Belt Line).
Description
The Grande Ceinture is now entirely dedicated to freight traffic in its northern and eastern section between
To the west, a short section, between
The southern section, between
Only the
History
Construction
Decided upon in 1875, the Grande Ceinture opened in 1877 between
In 1882, the section between
In 1883, the section between
In 1939, most of the Grande Ceinture closed to passenger traffic, which was left with only the
Passenger traffic between
Between 2005 and the end of 2006 the marshalling yards of Achères and Villeneuve-Saint-Georges closed ; the Grande Ceinture thus no longer links the marshalling yard at Le Bourget to the radial lines.
Grande ceinture stratégique
Grande ceinture complémentaire
In 1924 it was decided to create the "Grande Ceinture complémentaire" between Noisy-le-Sec and Sucy-Bonneuil. This line opened in 1928 for freight and in 1932 for passenger traffic. The section between Bobigny and Sucy-Bonneuil was built later.
Exploitation by the Syndicat
The syndicat du Chemin de fer de grande ceinture
Deserted by travellers
The Grande Ceinture's role always erred towards freight rather than passenger transportation. As one can see on the timetables in May 1914, the number of passenger trains of travelers was limited, as was their speed. Running through areas that were then under-urbanised and not linking into the necessary suburban rail-routes, it is thus unsurprising that the Grande Ceinture's passenger service proved unable to withstand the increasing use of cars, buses and other modes of transport.
Electrification
The desire to introduce large freight trains onto the Grande Ceinture gave rise to the project to
The radial lines at the exit to gare du Nord and gare de l'Est were electrified, running single-phase 25 kV 50 Hz at the end of the 1950s. In this era, electrifying the Grande Ceinture's eastern section became necessary so that freight trains could run along the Ceinture without a break. To this end, the junction section from Stains (Paris-Creil line) to Noisy-le-Sec was switched on as an electric line on 21 July 1959. The Argenteuil-Stains and Bobigny-Gagny sections on the "Complémentaire" were, in their turn, electrified with 25 kV on 14 September 1970.
TGV use
From the winter service in 1984 onwards, a new direct TGV link from Lille to Lyon was proposed using the Grande Ceinture Est routes from the junction at Stains to Valenton. Traffic then runs through Noisy-le-Sec but certain trains also loan the "Complémentaire" if there are engineering works or other disruptions. The success of this new scheme led SNCF to offer a second daily round-trip ticket as early as 1985. Until 1986, trains were coupled at Valenton with a new direct Rouen-Lyon service, using the Grande Ceinture Sud, from Versailles-Chantiers to Valenton through Massy-Palaiseau. The TGV Lille-Lyon no longer uses the Grande Ceinture since the opening of the LGV Interconnexion Est in 1994.
TGV Normandie-Roissy
There are plans to build a TGV link between
Gallery
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Bond of the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Grande Ceinture, 1876
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Exchange station at Bourget supplying the marshalling yard at Bourget-Drancy
See also
- Tangentielle Nord
- Tangentielle Ouest
- Tangentielle Sud
- Chemin de fer de Petite Ceinture
- Transilien
- Grande ceinture Ouest
References
- Carrière, Bruno; Collardey, Bernard (1992). L'aventure de la Grande ceinture (in French) (La vie du rail ed.). Paris.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Banaudo, J. (1982). Trains oubliés volume 4: L'État, le Nord, les Ceintures (in French) (du Cabri ed.).
- Hebdomadaire (6 November 1966). "La vie du Rail" (in French). No. 1069.
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