I’ve been doing a little research on the history of the lines in the area around Nice.

The first rails were planned alongside the River Var in 1845. At that time Nice and its surroundings were part of the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. The rails were laid on a 12 kilometre length between La Rochette Sur Var and Aspremont. The line began working with a single flat wagon drawn by a mule.

In 1860, Nice was annexed by France. This annexation created various upheavals. Amongst the changes was the generation of a new railway line from Marseilles to Nice which did not pass through major centres of population in the Var – Brignoles, Draguignan and Grasse. Local dignitaries began a process to develop a central line through the Var. This process wass given some impetus when on January 24th, 1872, a collapse between Antibes and Cagnes highlighted the brittleness of the single railway link.

The recent annexation of Nice generated a desire for a direct line to Paris. The valley of the Var was considered for this route even though there is no road in the valley. Puget-Théniers was connected to the coast only by one mule track.

The arrival of Charles de Freycinet at the Public Ministry of Labour resulted in a large number of railway projects. For the area of Provence-Alpes Martime-Côte d’Azur, six lines were planned, linking:

A) Savines with Barcelonnette
B) Digne with Draguignan, via St-Andre and Castellane
C) Digne with the line to Barcelonnette, via Seyne
D) Draguignan with Cagnes or Nice via Grasse
E) Draguignan with Mirabeau, via Barjols
F) Nice with Puget-Théniers.

Single track lines were proposed of standard gauge. Nice’s officials were unhappy and proposed a million franc subsidy to ensure that Nice was included on the main routes of the system – to Digne and the ‘Central Var’.

Work commenced on two lines: in 1881: Digne to Castellane; and in 1882: Grasse to Draguignan. The original intention was to use standard gauge but the costs of standard gauge became prohibitive. Initially thought to be in the region of 200,000 francs per kilometre rose to a likely, 300,000 francs/km for Digne-Castellane and even 600,000 francs for Draguignan-Grasse. The decision was made in 1883 and 1884 to redesign the lines to a metre gauge, the routes became more sinous and less expensive and a new railway company was formed – La Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Sud de la France – to run the concessions.

Work on the Central Var line started, along its full length in 1886 and 1887. For the first time in France, a narrow gauge line attained a length greater than 100 km. The first section Draguignan-Salernes was officially opened on April 23rd, 1888. On August 27th, the line reached Barjols, and then on January 28th, 1889 the terminus of Meyrargues.
The building of the section from Draguignan to Grasse, faced greater geological obstacles and required the building of remarkable civil engineering structures, like the viaduct of Siagne (a metallic bridge of 72 metres high) and the viaduct of Rayol.

For a time there was great tension between France and Italy and the standard gauage coastal line was thought to be under threat. An alternative standard gauge route was prosed by putting a third rail alongside the metre gauge line between Nice and Draguignan.

The decision was also taken to construct a coastal line to link towns not served by the standard gauge. The first section St-Raphaël-St-Tropez was inaugurated on August 25th, 1889, then the line was extended to Hyères August 4th, 1890. On the July 1st, 1894, a branchline Cogolin-St-Tropez was opened. The unveiling of the last length of main line, Hyères-Toulon was opened on August 6th 1905.

By 1892, La Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Sud de la France had a 300km network with over 135km in difficult terrain, crossing the boundaries of four departments. The map shows the full extent of the network which was finally completed in 1911 when the Digne to Nice line finally was fully opened. By then the network had 349km of lines. Sadly, the only line left now is that from Nice to Digne.

References:

http://cccp.traindespignes.free.fr/infos-historique-creation.html

A network of 1 metre railways was built in the South of France at the end of the 19th century, run by the Chemins de Fer du Sud de la France (S.F.), later to become the Compagnie des chemins de fer de la Provence (C.P.).

600 km of rail lines were built in three areas:

(1) La Littoral. A coastal section ran from Toulon, via Hyeres and Ste Maxime to Fréjus and St Raphaël.
(2) Nice-Meyrargues. A central section ran across the departments of the Var and the Alpes Maritimes, from Meyragues, via Draguignan and Grasse, to Colomars at the Var river, where it connected with the Nice-Digne section. This line ran from the end of the 19th century until it was closed in 1950.
(3) Nice-Digne This section ran from Nice, up the Var river valley to Dignes-les-Bains. Thankfully this line is still in service today.

Tramways were also built in the Alpes-Maritimes. These tramways reached into some of the remotest areas of the Alpes-Maritimes. One example is that from Menton to Sospel.

The “Train des Pignes” is a name that was used locally for the old train on the Meyrargues-Nice and the Nice-Digne lines. Villagers used to collect pine cones (pommes de pignes) in the hills, usually the large cones from a pine called the pigne noir. They would collect the pine cones in large bags and leave the bags beside the railway tracks. The train moved through the hills very slowly — so slowly that passengers could get on and off the train while it was moving at it’s “normal” speed. It was a common sight for these bags of pine cones to be put onto the train as it passed, to be transported to the remote houses and farms for fuel.

A number of branch lines linked the longer lines to places nearby, mostly in the Alpes-Maritimes.

Grasse-Cannes: 1871-1938 for passengers, although the southern part of the line remained open for limited freight operations. The Cannes-Grasse line was reopened in 2005.

Grasse – Cagnes-sur-Mer: left the Grasse-Vence route at Pré-de-Lac and followed the valleys down past Roquefort-les-Pins and Villeneuve-Loubet to Cagnes-sur-Mer.

Vence-Cagnes-sur-Mer: went past Saint Paul-de-Vence and La Colle-sur-Loup. Some of viaducts and tunnel openings are still visible here, from along the road.

Roquestéron: from the Var river, at the Pont Charles-Albert (between St Martin-du-Var and Plan-de-Var), this spur line followed the Esteron valley west to Roquestéron, passing just south of Gilette and Pierrefeu.

Vésubie Valley: from Plan-du-Var, via St Jean-la-Rivière, Lantosque and Roquebillière to St Martin-Vésubie.

Tinée Valley: this branch-line went up the Tinée valley from a narrow gorge at the Pont de la Mescala to St Sauveur-sur-Tinée, providing access to:La Tour, Bariols, Clans, Illonse, Marie and Rimplas.

Dalius Valley: this line followed the Dalius valley up beyond the Gorges de Dalius. It branched off from the main line at the Pont de Gueydan and went to the small town of Guillaumes.

References:

http://www.beyond.fr/themes/lostrailways.html – this page gives a much fuller account of these lost lines and is worth a visit.

Usually when we come to Nice in the late Autumn we travel somewhere on the Chemins de Fer de Provence which runs from Nice to Digne in Provence – about 151 km.

Last year we travelled to Entreveux. This year we did not travel on the train, but walked alongside the line at St. Martin du Var. We also visited the renovated buiding that used to be the Nice terminus of the line. Renovation was only just completed. Here are two photos which show the change – the first from 2007 the second taken this week.

There was a display of some historic photos some of which you can find below.

Since late 2011 the trackwork on the line has been being renewed and they have bought four new DMUs for use on the line.

We visited Sospel in The Alpes Martime today and took the bus from there to Menton.

As we travelled down on the bus on the D2566 we saw a number of derelict viaducts.

After a little investigation on the Internet we were able to establish that a tramway was opened from Menton to Sospel in 1912/13 which at first was very well patronised with 1st and 2nd Class accommodation. Often freight wagons we attached to trams as they traversed the line.

When the main line from Nice to Tende was being built, the tramway provided an easy means for transport of materials from the coast. Sadly once the main line was opened usage of the tramway declined and it closed in the 1930s. The route of the tramway very closely followed the line of what is now the D2566. It passed through or close to two villages en-route from Sospel to Menton: Castillon and Monti.

References:

http://transpressnz.blogspot.fr/2012/02/one-time-tramway-from-menton-to-sospel.html

http://www.cparama.com/forum/ligne-du-tramway-menton-sospel-t4789.html

http://www.notrefamille.com/cartes-postales-photos/cartes-postales-photos-Ligne-du-Tram-de-MENTON-a-SOSPEL-A.-M-.–Le-Viaduc-du-Carei.-06500-MENTON-06-alpes-maritimes-553903-67098-detail.html

http://www.delcampe.net/page/item/id,80276116,var,Tramway-line-from-Menton-to-Sospel-the-Viaduct-du-Caramel-Sospel-Alpes-Maritimes-France-postcard,language,E.html

http://www.lafoireauxaffaires.fr/cartespostales/page1.html