Saint-Étienne–Lyon railway

Saint-Étienne–Lyon railway
Saint-Étienne-Châteaucreux station
Overview
System	SNCF
Status	Operational
Locale	France (Rhône-Alpes)
Termini	Gare de Saint-Étienne-Châteaucreux Gare de Lyon-Perrache
Operation
Opened	1830-1833
Owner	RFF
Operator(s)	SNCF
Technical
Line length	57 km (35 mi)
Number of tracks	Double track
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	1.5 kV DC
Route map from Clermont-Ferrand from Le Puy-en-Velay 502.1 Saint-Étienne-Châteaucreux 513.5 Saint-Chamond 518.1 La Grand-Croix 523.1 Rive-de-Gier 537.8 Givors-Ville from Nîmes (right Rhône bank) 539.3 Givors-Canal to Chasse-sur-Rhône (left Rhône bank) to Tassin 541.7 Grigny-le-Sablon 546.1 Vernaison 553.6 Pierre-Bénite 555.1 Oullins 556.7 river Saône Line from Marseille and Lyon-Part-Dieu 558.8 Lyon-Perrache 559.1 river Saône Line to Paris

The Saint-Étienne to Lyon line is a railway linking Saint-Étienne to Lyon. The line was built between 1828 and 1833 by Camille Seguin and Marc Seguin at a cost of 14,500,000 FRF.

Construction began in September 1826. Marc Seguin was chief engineer, chief of estates, maintenance and rolling stock at the same time. Despite all the natural obstacles he encountered, Seguin drew up the plans for line, 56 km in length, with a slow descent towards Lyon. The first part of the line, between Saint-Étienne and Rive-de-Gier was laid at a constant descent of 1.2 to 1.4%. The following section, running along the Gier valley down to Givors, on the Rhône, was less inclined, with a slope of 0.65%. The last section of the line, to Lyon, was built virtually level.

To avoid difficulties in acquiring land, with no laws concerning compulsory purchase at the time, Seguin built several bridges and tunnels. Between 1827 and 1830 he dug the first tunnel de Couzon à Rive de Gier, with a length of 977 m, a second tunnel, only 400 m long, was dug in 1831 in Lyon. A third tunnel, 1.5 km in length, was dug under Terrenoire.

Instead of cast iron laid on stone sleepers as was then the practice in mines, Seguin decided to use iron rails on wooden sleepers.

The railway followed the path of the Janon from Terrenoire (now part of Saint-Étienne) to Saint-Chamond, and then the Gier to the Rhone. Between Rive-de-Gier and Givors on the Rhone, the railway paralleled the Givors canal. The population was hostile to the railway which threatened many trades. Trains were derailed and wagons set on fire. In 1835 the proletarian poet Guillaume Roquille published his Franco-Provençal language collection Ballon d’essai d’un jeune poète forézien (Trial balloon of a young Forézien poet) violently attacked the arrival of the railway, which would ruin the canal on which his father worked as a porter.