The Yellow Train has been winding its way through the Pyrenees for more than a century. This line, which has become an emblem of French Catalonia, surprises more than one motorist, on the roads of ski resorts, by the paths it takes. Dizzying bridges and particularly steep slopes stand on its route, between Villefranche-de-Conflent and Latour-de-Carol, very close to the Spanish border. This train, which has been undergoing heavy renovation work for several weeks, is also remarkable for its history.
Because it was not easy. Jean-Louis Blanchon and Pierre Cazenove, two enthusiasts of this line, authors of books in the collection “Les carnets du Train jaune” (Editions Talaia), tell 20 Minutes this formidable railway epic.
“The children here had never seen the sea”
It was at the end of the 18th century that the idea of creating a train was born in the Catalan mountains. At that time, Cerdagne, surrounded by mountains, was particularly isolated from the rest of the department. Admittedly, there is already a road, which linked Perpignan to this remote region. But it takes more than a day for the diligences to reach the plains.
“Children here had never seen the sea,” says historian Jean-Louis Blanchon. This line made the inhabitants of this region French. “The people of Cerdagne “were turned towards Spain, confirms his colleague, Pierre Cazenove. It was, on the one hand, cultural. And, above all, it was easier for them to go to Puigcerda than to go to Prades or Perpignan! » Jules Lax, the director of control of the Chemins de fer du Midi, and Emmanuel Brousse, elected representative of the upper cantons and journalist at The Independent, then carry the crazy project to build a train line, to open up the mountains. Luckily, France is developing its rail network at a good pace in those years.
“The creation of the line was particularly fast”
But this line, because it runs through a mountainous region, will not be easy to build. It required the construction of… 650 structures, including 19 tunnels. And above all, two vertiginous bridges: the Gisclard bridge, perched 80 meters high, above a precipice, and the Séjourné viaduct, built 65 meters above the ground. These two constructions are, even today, considered as real technical feats. “The Séjourné viaduct is a masterpiece of railway bridges, in terms of masonry, explains Jean-Louis Blanchon, historian and lifelong enthusiast of the Yellow Train. As for the Gisclard bridge, it is the first railway metal bridge. Another feat, the Bolquère-Eyne station is the highest in France: it culminates at 1,592 meters above sea level.
Building rails in such a steep region is a tour de force. “And what is all the more remarkable is that the creation of the line was particularly rapid, from 1904 to 1910, notes Pierre Cazenove. What took a long time was what came before, the political decisions, and the studies. But once the site was launched, it took six years for the train to go to Mont-Louis. And one more year, in Bourg-Madame. »
A fatal accident during a test, in 1909
The State having made the choice, when it was still the beginnings of this motorization, to build a train with electric traction, and not with steam, it was also necessary to build a huge dam, to feed it, at the Bouillouse lake. “It was revolutionary! », resumes Pierre Cazenove. “We could have settled for steam. But these lines, they were closed after the Second World War. Perhaps if the State had not opted for electricity, the Yellow Train line would no longer exist today. »
Just before it was put into service, a spectacular accident struck the small line on October 31, 1909. That day, engineers and railway agents carried out a final test, on the Gisclard bridge, to check, once again, if everything works perfectly. The day before, a first test had already made it possible to realize that everything was going well, for the Yellow Train. “But the law said you had to do two tries!” “says Jean-Louis Blanchon. The next day, however, the test turns tragic. Contrary to the “many nonsense that has been said”, confides Pierre Cazenove, that day, the agents were not tipsy coming out of an inauguration aperitif, and the train did not fall off the bridge. It was a technical error that led to this tragedy.
The inauguration, “it was an extraordinary date”
“There was a misunderstanding between the head of traction and the staff who were on the track”, explains this enthusiast. At the time, the accident report concluded that the tragedy was due “to the premature removal of the chocks, which resulted in the unexpected departure of the train”. The problem is that the air brake was empty. It had not yet been brought into compliance. And the electric brake, “whose operation is also capricious”, write the investigators of the time, did not work, either. “The train went adrift,” explains Pierre Cazenove. And he lay down, 600 meters below, on the mountains. Six people died that day, including the designer of the suspension bridge, Commander Albert Gisclard, and nine were injured. “It’s a deeply painful story for this line,” says Jean-Louis Blanchon.
After the accident, which made headlines at the time, opponents of the construction of a Yellow Train, and Emmanuel Brousse, the elected official who had dreamed it up, took it to heart joy. “Emmanuel Brousse was a moderate Republican, he had the right and the left against him,” continues the author. We heard “We said so”, “We kill a commander, while war threatens”, “We waste the money of the Republic”, etc. But these criticisms have had no follow-up. And in 1910, the line was inaugurated. “It was an extraordinary date, continues the historian. There were French flags everywhere along the line. The school children were singing The Marseillaise. »
Today, the Users’ Committee keeps watch
Today, the Yellow Train is still running. But he is getting old. Some 9.3 million have been released by the State, the Occitanie region and SNCF Réseau to modernize the line. The construction site, which began on February 27, is due to be completed on April 28. But the defenders of this TER unlike the others are keeping watch. Not long ago, there was talk of the line closing to daily users, and becoming a tourist attraction, for the curious.
The Yellow Train has not become a mere carousel, but it is far from being “the public service train” that it was, regrets Georges Bartoli, the president of the Committee of users of the line. The SNCF confines itself to offering timetables that do not suit users, there are too few connections, and the prices are not attractive, he laments. “We, inhabitants of the territory, we do not find our interest there”, he continues.
Too bad, because “one train is better than fifty cars or five buses on the road. The Yellow Train runs on electricity, produced locally… If it had to be built today, this infrastructure would be pharaonic! But it exists! So let’s use it to the full, exclaims Georges Bartoli. “In addition, its development would boost tourism,” he notes. The Users’ Committee is preparing to launch a petition to make itself heard. So that the Yellow Train remains, always, the train that it started.