The train of Montpellier with Palavas was the name of one of the six lines of the Compagnie of the railroads of local interest of the department of Herault. It circulated in the Herault, between Montpellier and the Seaside resort of Palavas-the-Floods, of the May 6th 1872 with the October 31st 1968.

Locally, it is often called the “Small Train of Palavas” and was made famous thanks to the caricatures of Albert Dubout.

History

First steps

Since the middle of the 19th century, the fashion of the sea bathings makes small village of fishermen of Palavas a destination appraisal of Montpelliérains. However, until 1872, the access to Palavas from Montpellier is possible only by one overland route, muddy and easily flooded in rainy weather, without shade in summer (the first Platane S are planted in 1875).

Since 1856, engineer Baillard proposes a project of line borrowing only Right Bank of the Lez, little populated, but in Palavas, the line finished on the grounds of Frederic Fabrèges.

In the years 1860, the general advice of Herault decides of densifier the departmental rail network. In 1865, the direction of the Compagnie of the railroads of local interest of the department of Herault proposes a project of five lines, including one connecting Montpellier to the Gulf of Lions.

In 1868, the adopted project makes pass the line more to the east, and mainly on left bank of Lez. Longer approximately, this course one kilometer makes it possible to serve the village of Lattes and the part most populated (and popular) of Palavas.

The opponents with the project failed. They opposed the cost of the construction (of which that of the Viaduc of the station of the Esplanade) for a number of passengers to come that they considered ridiculous. The dealers of the two toll bridges of Palavas and the contractor living of the circulation of the boats on Lez feared obviously this competition.

Two imperial decrees confirms the authorization to build this network: that of declaration of public utility of August 14th, 1867 and that confirming the granting of a subsidy of August 4th, 1869.

The building site of the line of Palavas is spread out June 1869 in May 1872.

Exploitation of the line

The line is with single track on its course of 11,5 kilometers, with sidings on several sites in particular to allow the circulation of goods trains. The distance is carried out normally in half an hour, stops included/understood.

As of after its inauguration by official on Sunday, May 5, 1872, she is an immediate success: of at the beginning of May at the end of July 1872, it transports 130.844 passengers. The maximum was of 2 million travellers per annum. In spite of this success, the projects of 1913 and 1945 of extension towards the station melgorienne of Carnon were never carried out.

Four classes of tariffs existed:

• the class has equivalent to the First class,
• the class B equivalent to the second class,
• the class C was a car of the morning and evening when the Chasse the USSR were authorized to embark with their dogs,
• the class D was a morning coach which was used for goods transport.

The line knew several accidents which killed a score of people (suicides, falls, and finally crossing of the train with a motor bike). The station of the Esplanade was struck three times by the cars of the train which were pushed with the return; a journalist having fun of one of these incidents which did not make a victim wrote that the station master should have been wary to see the train arriving, for once claims it, in advance.

End

But, as from the years 1950, the line of Palavas, like the four others of the Company of local interest, is competed with by the car: the road of Palavas to Montpellier is remade with a bridge making it possible to pass the Canal of the Rhone to Sète.

Nevertheless, it is the last of the lines of the company héraultaise to being closed on a vote of the General advice. The “small train” accomplishes its last voyage on October 31st, 1968.

According to the railway historian Paul Génelot (), the Train of Palavas transported approximately 60 million travellers in 96 years of exploitation.

Material

to supplement

The engines were sometimes equipped in front of a handrail to make it possible to the bold travellers to live the voyage to the front one.

The record of distance held by one of the engines with vapor of the line is held by the n°63 (in service of 1896 to 1956) with 1.677.003 km.

Line, stations and stops

The deposit

Built in the district montpelliérain of the Juvénal Port, it was located at the site of the current public garden Jean Monnet.

The station of the Esplanade

For a question of prestige, the terminus is installed in the middle of Montpellier, in a corner of the place of the Comedy and Esplanade (currently Charles-of-Gaulle esplanade). At the time, the station and the viaduct which enables him to reach the plain of Slats is the limit of the urbanized part; beyond, towards the east and Lez the military field of exercise of the Polygon is.

It is the point highest of the line to 35 meters of altitude.

Completed in 1870, it is destroyed in 1974, one year after the viaduct. The municipal public garden arranged in 1881 to embellish it disappeared with the digging from the tunnel under the Comedy, whose entry was located on the place of the same name.

Stop of Céreirède

Located on the commune of Slats and Right Bank of the Lez, Céreirède is an agricultural space which obtains a stop served of 1908 to 1968.

Park Slats

Brought into service since 1872, the station is located close to the town hall, the church and the school of a commune whose population is then dispersed in a still agricultural big space.

The bridge between Céreirède and Lattes does not exist any more.

Halt of the First Huts

Opened in 1884, this halt was required by the inhabitants of this locality wedged between two ponds and the channel of Lez. The direction accepted in the condition that the hour of arrival and the time of departure are identical (less than one minute of stop).

It made it possible to the inhabitants to dispatch downtown of the sheaves of Roseau X which was used to cover the roofs of the houses, with the manufacture of cannisses or simply the ornament.

This halt was generally used by the hunters and their dogs (the class C) energy to seek game on the edge of the ponds.

After the First Huts, the line passed above the channel of the Rhone to Sète by a narrow bridge.

Halt of Right Bank or “garette”

200 meters before the terminus, the train carries out a halt with the height of what is then the only bridge connecting two banks of Palavas. It makes it possible to avoid with the travellers having to pay a vat to join Right Bank.

Without lighting, this halt was often criticized:

• the trains were full as of their departure with the station of Palavas,
• the resquilleurs benefitted from this fast halt to go up without ticket.

The direction removed several times this stop, but had to maintain it at the request of the customers.

Park of Palavas

The train arrived on left bank, with more close to the beach. The grounds necessary to the influence were given to the General advice by the Marquis of Saint-Maurice to the condition express which they are used only for the rail-bound transport. At the time of the destruction of the station in 1974, the town hall of Palavas-the-Floods was thus obliged to reconvert the grounds in carparks for cars and a coach station.

The first passengers of the train as of 6 hours of the morning were poissonnières port which were going to sell downtown the catches of their husbands. Downtown, they went to the Markets castellanes, on the top of the hill of Montpellier; and they were recognized with the wicker baskets that they transferred onto their head.

Another daily passenger was awaited at the beginning of the XXe century with Palavas: the doctor montpelliérain who carried out his consultations in residence between two trains.

Current vestiges

On the way

The rails are still places from there on two small portions between the old houses of Céreirède and their gardens, like at the edge of the ponds.

The way of the line remains visible in topography (see charts to the 1/25 000 of the national geographical Institut n°2743 and 2743 OT) and the layout of the streets and other landscape elements:

• in Montpellier, the avenue of the States of Languedoc and the avenues Albert Dubout and of the Small Train, then an invaded ditch of vegetation in the district of Rauze,
• in the town of Slats, the railway influence was reconverted places from there in the middle of the shopping mall and in esplanade accommodating the war memorial and a bowling pitch.
• in Palavas-the-Floods, a walk pedestrian in edge of quay, a carpark between the downtown area and the post office, and finally the coach station preserved the form of the influence of the line.

Part of the line, associated with some country lanes of Slats, is currently one of the ways (out of ground) possible for the cyclists and hikers wishing to go Slats to Palavas, which were doubled by the asphalted cycle tracks parallel with the secondary road 986. One can distinguish still there from the ballasts and the portions of rails run in the tar. A railway bridge making it possible to cross a river is still in place.

Vestiges of rolling stock

The engines of the Small Train were useful thereafter in Alsace in the valley Doller, on the line of Sabers and with écomusée of Marquèze in the Regional natural park of the Moors.

Two engines and a car are exposed in Herault:

• in Palavas, the engine n°70 within the museum of the Small Train, since 1996,
• at the entry of Montpellier, the roundabout of Close to Arenas starting point of the road of Palavas, is exposed the engine n°81. Classified with its car historic building, it was installation in July 1995.

Cultural vestiges

The line was crunched by the draftsman Albert Dubout since 1922. It represented “small a carnavalesque and deformed train”, and benefitted from it to make fun of the passengers estivants. Two museums are devoted to Albert Dubout and the Small Train with Palavas-the-Floods.

After the end of the service, two songs evoked the Small Train of Palavas:

• one which was useful for film of Roger Bessière on this train, words of Andre Pierre and music of Claude Estienne.
• the second with words of Pierre Nicot and a music of Starling Jack.

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