The Paris–Saint-Lazare–Saint-Germain-en-Laye line is a long double-track suburban railway line in France, connecting Paris-Saint-Lazare station (8th arrondissement of Paris) to Saint-Germain-en-Laye station, in the Yvelines department. It is now designated as line no. 975 000 of the national rail network.
Inaugurated in 1837 between Paris and Le Pecq, it was the first railway line built from Paris, but also the first in France designed solely for passenger transport and operated using steam locomotives, five years after the opening between 1830 and 1832 of the Saint-Étienne–Lyon railway, built by the brothers Paul and Marc Seguin. Transport on this last line was intended for goods and passengers, and traction was entrusted to Seguin locomotives with tubular boilers. On the Saint-Étienne–Andrézieux railway, the first line built on the continent and opened in 1827, horse-drawn traction was initially used.
The Paris to Le Pecq line was modernised during the 1920s with third rail electrification and the introduction of Z 1300 ("Standard") trains. Its western half has been incorporated into RER line A since 1972 and is operated by the Régie autonome des transports parisiens (RATP). The rest of the line is operated by the Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF) and forms a branch of Transilien Line L.
History In 1825, the Stockton and Darlington Railway was opened in Great Britain. It was the first in the world to provide passenger transport with steam locomotives. In 1827, the Saint-Étienne–Andrézieux railway was opened in France. The first railway in continental Europe, it was designed for goods traffic with horse traction before being used by steam locomotives. This line was extended to Roanne, to the north, in 1833. To cross the foothills of the mountains near Neulise, between Balbigny and l'Hôpital-sur-Rhins, it used four inclined planes inspired by what was done in England for river boats. The same year, the Budweis–Linz–Gmunden Horse-Drawn Railway was opened in Austria,
From 1830 to 1832, the railway line from Saint-Étienne to Lyon was opened, which was the first in France to experiment with traction by steam locomotives and, from 1831, with passenger transport. Elsewhere in Europe, in 1835, the lines from Brussels to Malines in Belgium and from Nuremberg to Fürth in Bavaria were opened. It was in this context that a railway line linking Paris to Saint-Germain-en-Laye was envisaged by the Pereire brothers, who requested a concession for its construction in 1832.
The first railway line in the Île-de-France
The success of the railway line from Saint-Étienne to Lyon quickly made the national government aware of the importance of developing this new mode of transport. Indeed, the speed and savings achieved as a result of building the railway brought immediate economic development to the Saint-Étienne region at the beginning of the 1830s. It therefore seemed essential to build a line from the capital, to make this new means of transport known to the public, and thus arouse the interest of politicians and financiers.
The Pereire brothers were the first to propose the construction of a line from Paris, and sought the concession in 1832. They obtained it by law on 9 September 1835 and on 2 November following, created the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Saint-Germain (Paris to Saint-Germain Railway Company) to manage its creation and operation. This company was authorised by a royal decree on 4 November 1835. The line was to connect the capital to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a popular Sunday stroll spot for Parisians, whose proximity to Paris limited the investments required. In addition, its position west of Paris made it possible to make this section to be built a first link on a main line to Rouen, considered a priority to be built. The studies were carried out by civil engineers Eugène Flachat and his brother Stéphane Mony (Flachat) and mining engineers Émile Clapeyron and Gabriel Lamé. Then, Stephane Mony (Flachat), Clapeyron and Lamé became the engineers of the company and Eugène Flachat its director.
The route to Le Pecq, long, is located on the plain and, apart from two river crossings, presented few construction difficulties. With no significant ramp or tight curve, it required the construction of few engineering structures: two bridges over the Seine, the Asnières railway bridge and the Chatou railway bridge, as well as the long Batignolles tunnel to cross the Monceau hill (demolished in 1922-1926). At first, simple wooden bridges were made do. The work was quickly carried out under the direction of Eugène Flachat. This construction of the tunnel was to provoke mockery. François Arago declared: "I affirm without hesitation that in this sudden passage, people subject to sweating will be inconvenienced, that they will gain chest infections and pleurisy". Another author warns travellers against the "fleeting succession of images that are likely to set the retina on fire".
Beyond Clichy, the route, in a sector that was still relatively undeveloped, posed fewer expropriation problems than in the immediate and more urbanised surroundings of Paris; it crossed fields and forests for most of this final section. At the time, the terminus of the line was at the port of Le Pecq, on the right bank of the Seine. The locomotives were indeed incapable of tackling the ramp required to climb the Saint-Germain hillside, which towers several dozen metres above the river. The line had only a single track, without even the smallest intermediate crossing loop for trains to pass, whereas the specifications of 1835 required at least two parallel tracks (see the specifications following the Law on the Concession of the Paris to Saint-Germain Railway, no. 348, of 9 July 1835, signed by Louis-Philippe, King of the French, Adolphe Thiers, Minister of the Interior and Jean-Charles Persil, Keeper of the Seals of France, Minister of Justice).
The work was progressing quickly as noted by Le Moniteur universel of 3 August 1836:
"The work on the railway from Paris to Saint-Germain is in full swing along the entire line, although the harvest work has made workers quite rare. If one could judge, by what is happening today, the influence that this communication will have on the localities it crosses, the results would be extremely favourable. It is above all a source of prosperity for the commune of Batignolles-Monceaux; all the inns on the Barrière Monceaux are crowded, at meal times, with the five hundred workers who work in the Paris underground and in the earthworks of the Batignolles plain. The movement of curious onlookers, who travel to the plain to see the manoeuvres of the wagons, on the temporary railways already established over a great length, maintains an extraordinary activity in the commune."
Although the construction of the line posed few problems, the positioning of the terminus in Paris was the subject of heated debate. The Pereire brothers wanted an embarcadère (pier)–the term or a station at that time–on Place de la Madeleine (cf. ), with a viaduct on Rue Tronchet towards Batignolles. But following protests from local residents, the pier was finally placed below Place de l'Europe. The facilities were basic, and access was via ramps and stairs. As the Saint-Germain hill was too steep to be climbed by a steam train, the line terminated at Le Pecq, then a stagecoach transported passengers to Saint-Germain.
The inauguration of the line takes place on 24 August 1837 in the presence of the royal family and in particular Queen Maria Amalia, but in the absence of King Louis-Philippe. The latter preferred to travel by horse-drawn carriage and the government had dissuaded him from exposing himself to the risks of such a journey. The inaugural journey took 25 minutes. The inauguration met with considerable response and was reported at length by the press. The day after, on 26 August, the line was opened to the public, and Parisians rushed to discover the new railway at the "pier" on the Place de l'Europe: 18,000 passengers were transported on the first day of operation.
In the Journal des débats politiques et littéraires, Jules Janin raved: "Yesterday, going to Saint-Germain was a journey; today it is just a matter of leaving one's house." L'Écho français appreciated the technical feat ("We were struck to the highest degree by the magic of this communication, so rapid and so to speak instantaneous"), while putting it into perspective: "but the eccentricity of the points of departure and arrival make it an object of curiosity and exhibition rather than of utility and exploitation." Its lasting success would belie this reservation. Parisians appreciated the speed of transport, which took less than half an hour. This was considerable progress compared to the (cuckoos), horse-drawn carriages, which took 5 to 6 hours to travel from the Tuileries to Saint-Germain.
At the start of operations, ten round trips per day were operated, using a single train. Departures were scheduled every 90 minutes, from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m., then from 2:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The departure from Le Pecq took place 45 minutes later. But this precarious operation improved a few months later with the laying of a second track in 1838. The same year, the first stations at Nanterre and Chatou were opened, then two others at Rueil and Colombes in 1844. Listed on the stock exchange, the share price of the company operating the line from Paris to Saint-Germain quickly doubled: it rose to 1,072 francs in 1838.
The atmospheric railway
The development in England of atmospheric railway technology made it possible to envisage building a steep extension from Le Pecq to Saint-Germain. This system in fact separated the traction effort from the adhesion.
On 5 August 1844, a law made available a credit of 1,800,000 Francs for the testing of an atmospheric railway. On 10 September and 20 October 1844, agreements were signed between the Minister of Public Works and the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Saint-Germain for the test to take place between Nanterre and the Saint-Germain plateau, in return for an extension of the line between the terminus of Le Pecq and said plateau. These agreements were approved by a royal ordinance on 2 November following.
Work on the extension began in 1845. It consisted of building a wooden bridge over the Seine, followed by a twenty-arch masonry viaduct. The route reached the centre of Saint-Germain-en-Laye by passing under the , through two successive tunnels. The terminal station was built in a trench in the château park, breaking the symmetry of Le Nôtre's flowerbeds in the process, but without apparently provoking any protest. The line was thus extended on 15 April 1847 over , with a 3.5% gradient, considerable for a railway.
On the way there, the ascending track has a cast iron tube in diameter, split at its top, but made watertight by two leather lips. It contained a piston attached to the chassis of a steering wagon, spreading the lips of the tube which closed after its passage, allowing it to be sucked in and made to climb the slope. Pumps created a vacuum in the tube, which attracted the piston and pulls the steering car, which pulled the cars like a classic locomotive. These pumps were operated by two steam engines with a power of two hundred horsepower, placed between the two Saint-Germain tunnels. They produced an air flow of per second, sufficient to move a convoy uphill at a speed of 35 km/h.