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Palavas-Your little train will always be missed
The little train in Palavas, considered by Napoleon III as of public interest, linked the resort to Montpellier between 1872 and 1968, and was immortalised by the French illustrator Albert Dubout in his cartoons. Only the locomotive number 81 remains today, displayed at the Southern entrance to Montpellier.
"The little Palavas train" was one of six lines of the Local Railway Company in the Hérault administrative department, which ran from 6th May 1872 to 31st October 1968 between Montpellier and the seaside resort of Palavas les Flots.
Why a train? From the middle of the 19th century, sea bathing was all the rage. Palavas was no exception and attracted more and more people from Montpellier. However, the road joining Montpellier to the sea was a single earth lane that became flooded when it rained.
In the 1860s, the Hérault Regional Council decided to develop the departmental railway network, of which one line went from Montpellier to the Gulf of Lions. The train followed the line of the River Lez on its left bank and served Lattes and the busiest and most popular part of Palavas.
Obviously, some people were unhappy with this, in particular the owners of the two toll bridges in Palavas. Moreover, several opponents predicted that it would not have much success and lamented the amounts spent on it. They were wrong and
officials opened the line on Sunday 5th May 1872. The total distance, 11.5 km, was usually travelled in half an hour, including stops. It met with immediate success, and from 5th May to the end of the month of July 1872, the train carried some 130,844 passengers. At the peak of its service, it attracted 2 million travellers each year. There were four rates of fare: A class was equivalent to the current first class (1.20 F), and B class (0.75 F) was like the second class. The C class concerned one carriage in the morning and one in the evening for hunters and their dogs. Finally, D class was for transporting goods and was only available early in the morning.
The train did three return journeys per day and had six stops. The terminus in Montpellier was located in the town centre on the Esplanade (now esplanade Charles-de-Gaulle), and at an altitude of 35 m, it was the highest section of the line. The Céreirède stop, in operation from 1908 to 1968, was in the town of Lattes; the bridge used by the train between the Céreirède and Lattes no longer exists.
The residents of the locality of Premières Cabanes asked that the train stop there too, which was agreed to by the Railway Management and implemented in 1884, enabling the residents to send wreaths of reeds to the town, used for covering roofs or making windbreaks. The hunters and their dogs in the C class often used this stop, as at the time, the banks of the lakes were full of game.
The railway reached Palavas above the Rhone canal at Sète by a narrow bridge. The last stop was around 200 m before the terminus on the right bank at the Garette, before arriving on the left bank as close as possible to the beach. The Marquis of Saint-Maurice gave the land to the Regional council on condition that it was devoted solely to railway transport. The mayor of Palavas, who demolished the station in 1974, was therefore under the obligation to reconvert the land into a coach and bus station and into car parks for the cars.
In 1968, the Company experienced major running difficulties and the little train was stopped, just short of its one hundredth anniversary. All of the locomotives, except two, were recycled in Alsace and at the Marquèze Eco-museum in the Landes region. The locomotive No.81 is displayed since 1995 at the entrance to Montpellier on the Palavas roundabout and is listed as a historic monument. The other belongs to the Albert-Dubout museum in Palavas. This wonderful cartoonist sketched the little train and its passengers from 1922 for our great pleasure. An absolute must to visit!
