After nearly four months of interruption following the Saint-Isidore landslide, trains of the Chemins de fer de Provence will resume service between Nice and Saint-André-les-Alpes starting Saturday, August 1st. This reopening marks an important milestone for a railway line that was put into service over a century ago.
Passengers will be able to use the Train des Pignes between Nice and Saint-André-les-Alpes again starting Saturday, August 1st. The landslide that occurred on April 11th at Saint-Isidore had forced the Chemins de fer de Provence to suspend service on this section of the line. The security work carried out in recent months now allows traffic to resume.
Inter-city trains will again provide connections between Nice and Saint-André-les-Alpes. However, a road substitute service will remain in place between Saint-André-les-Alpes and Digne-les-Bains. Services between Nice and Lingostière will not be operated on this first day of resumption.
From Sunday, August 2nd, urban and inter-city services will operate normally. An additional round trip will also be offered on Sundays and public holidays throughout August to accommodate summer travel.
To enable this restart, the South Region mobilized nearly 2.5 million euros. A first phase of work involved clearing, stabilizing and securing the slope nearest to the railway track. A second intervention will be undertaken in the coming weeks to reinforce the lateral zones, without interrupting train service.
Renaud Muselier emphasizes the objective of this work: « After the Saint-Isidore landslide, the South Region allows traffic to resume on an essential part of the Train des Pignes thanks to a major security project. Our priority is to guarantee residents and passengers a return to reliable and safe rail service, while continuing the work necessary to fully restore the line. »
A railway line that crosses the history of the Southern Alps
The reopening of the line brings to light a railway heritage over a century old. The project to link Nice and Digne was born in 1861 before work began in 1890. The various sections opened progressively until the complete opening of the line in 1911, after the piercing of the La Colle-Saint-Michel tunnel and the construction of numerous viaducts and structures.
Throughout the 20th century, this line passed through two world wars, economic difficulties and several threats of closure. Since 1980, the Study Group for the Chemins de fer de Provence (GECP) has contributed to preserving this heritage through the steam Train des Pignes. The association now has 55 volunteers and four permanent staff members. In 2022, 80 tourist trips transported 22,046 passengers.
Why is it called the Train des Pignes?
The nickname Train des Pignes is now part of the region’s heritage. Several accounts explain its origin. The most well-known tells that steam trains traveled slowly enough to allow passengers to get off to pick up pine cones, the « pignes » in Provençal, before resuming their seats. Another legend mentions a locomotive that supposedly continued its journey using pine cones as fuel after a coal shortage.
Parallel to the reopening of the line, the South Region is pursuing a 130 million euro modernization program. This includes notably the renovation of tracks and structures, the construction of a new maintenance facility in Nice as well as the acquisition of eight new trains.
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