Trains on the French-Spanish border
Jim Martin
Just back from my holiday in Argeles-sur-Mer, in the south of France. In another thread I noted that the family had been primed with the idea that I might be off for a day watching trains, and so it proved to be. I took a trip down to Portbou and Cerbere, which are the stations on either side of ...
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RMweb
Just back from my holiday in Argeles-sur-Mer, in the south of France. In another thread I noted that the family had been primed with the idea that I might be off for a day watching trains, and so it proved to be. I took a trip down to Portbou and Cerbere, which are the stations on either side of the French-Spanish border. The operations between these two stations are very interesting but not easy to see or - especially - to photograph. A good overview can be had from this site.

I should say that I know next to nothing about any of the trains described here. I know a bit about continental freight wagons, but the locomotives, EMUs and coaching stock are a total mystery to me. Anyone who can provide any more detailed information than I've given here is cordially invited to do so.

The French part of the route runs southwards from Perpignan to Cerbere. A twin tunnel runs from there to Portbou, on the Spanish side (the actual border is crossed half-way through the tunnel). The service south from Portbou runs through Girona and on to Barcelona.

The local service on the French side is actually pretty sparse. On a weekday, trains leave Perpignan for Cerbere at 06:20, 07:45, 09:34, 10:47, 12:30*, 13:46*, 15:40*, 17:03, 17:53*, 18:35, 19:13*, 22:10 (trains marked with a star go on to Portbou) and the return service is broadly similar in terms of requency and (ir)regularity of timing. All, as far as I know, are operated by EMUs: either these stylish, three-car articulated units

or more blocky two-car units (photo way down at the bottom). All of the EMUs that I noticed were allocated to Nimes, which suggests that they're fairly widespread across southern France.

In addition to the local service, there are quite a number of other services, but I saw only one of them, and even that only just:

SNCF has a couple of loco-hauled trains in each direction: a sleeper service which runs overnight between Paris (Austerlitz) and Portbou; another between Luxembourg and Strasbourg (seperate portions) and Portbou; and a daytime "Teoz" service between Paris and Cerbere.

Renfe operates two cross-border Talgo services. One runs between Montpellier and Barcelona (where it uses the beautiful but barely-used Estacio de Franca rather than Spain's answer to Birmingham New Street, Sants) travelling north in the morning and returning late in the afternoon. This was the service that I sort-of saw: I'd just left the station to check out the cafe opposite - recommended to me by a fellow RMWebber - when I heard the sound of a train and just caught a glimpse of the distinctive Talgo coaches through the trees as they swished past . On my return trip I'd hoped to get back to Argeles in time to see the southbound train pass, but instead it swept by in the opposite direction as we were pulling into Collioure, the last stop before Argeles :(.

The other Talgo is a real long-distance sevice. The southbound train leaves Montpellier early in the morning, crosses the border at about 09.30, stops at Barcelona (Sants) at noon and then travels right down the coast to Cartagena, arriving in the early evening after a 1000km journey. The return service departs from Lorca (about 80km west of Cartagena) at 08.20 and arrives in Montpellier at 21.09.

Renfe also operates three overnight international services under the "Trenhotel" banner. These run between Barcelona (Franca) and Paris (Austerlitz), Milan and Zurich. The Renfe website (which I quite liked once I'd got used to it) touts these trains very highly: I was disappointed not to see one.

There's also a fair bit of freight, which was what I really hoped to see.

I caught the 12.49 from Argeles to Portbou

The arrangement at the border is that only SNCF operates southbound cross-border local trains and only Renfe operates northbound. The train runs into a reserved platform at Portbou station, where everyone has to get off and go into the station building; showing passports, ID cards etc. to the Spanish police as they leave the platform. Once you're past that check, you can go where you want, including back onto the SNCF platform. The SNCF train stands in the station for a few minutes and then works empty back through the tunnel into France.

Portbou is only a village and the station is totally out of proportion to the place itself

In the middle of the day there is roughly one train an hour southwards from Portbou. All of these run to Barcelona. The faster ones, which take just over two hours to get to Sants, are operated by these impressive-looking five-car units, two of which made up the 13.26 train

Most, however, are operated by these three-car trundlers

These take over two and a half hours to reach Sants, with 25 intermediate stops. Their airline-style seating was well-enough upholstered, but appears to have been designed around a passenger with legs about six inches long. I rode back through the tunnel to Cerbere in one and I'd had enough after about three minutes

There was quite a lot to see on arrival at Portbou. As well as the Barcelona train there was a line of locomotives stabled alongside the station, a couple more in front of a loco shed across the tracks from there and a variety of freight stock just visible in the distance. There was also the stock for the Costa Brava standing in one of the platforms. This is a domestic sleeper service to Madrid. Judging from the timetable, extra coaches are added at Barcelona. The entire set was (type and number, from south to north):

Bc10x-9611, 50 71 50-70 611-1

BR3t-9821, 50 71 85-70 821-5

A10x-10019, 51 71 10-78 019-7

A9t-9104, 50 71 19-70 104-7

I presume that the number immediately after the type code is a simplified (perhaps internal) version of the RIV number, since it replicates the three digits at the end of the RIV number. As I understand it, the "A" code vehicles are first class and the "B"s are second class. I don't know what any of the rest of the codes mean. The A10x coach had plug doors, so was presumably slightly more modern than the rest.

To be honest, the Costa Brava looked a bit skanky. The coaches were a bit shabby externally, the second class accommodation (visible through the windows) didn't look too great and the plug-door coach had a leaking toilet tank that made everything for yards around smell like, well, a toilet.

The coaches were bookended by a pair of these, 252-045 at the southern end and 252-055 at the northern:

Behind them was a line-up of freight locos: heavily graffitied 253-072, 253-066 and 253-036

Beyond them was another 252 and a shunter painted in a different colour scheme altogether:

As far as I can work out, "adif" is Spain's equivalent of Network Rail. It's the infrastructure owner. I could be wrong about this.

Action while I was there included various shunting moves in the freight sidings, some performed by SNCF locos working through the tunnel

Most of the traffic seemed to be intermodal swapbodies and hooded steel carriers. Portbou is frustrating: the freight sidings are not all that visible because of their position and angle relative to the station. You can often tell that something is happening without being able to see what it is. Photography isn't easy, either, because there are catenary masts everywhere and the background colour of the landscape doesn't give you much to shoot against.

After a while, 253-072 trundled off to France

Various adif shunters worked the yards (this is actually 311-141, but you'd be pushed to tell)

One highlight was the appearance of a

which ran through the station and off to France. Unfortunately, I missed the other big moment because I was caught changing the batteries in my camera. 253-072 reappeared at the head of a smashing freight: about ten swapbodies on four-wheeled wagons, a Transfesa four-wheel van, several Renfe four-wheel hi-cube vans, a Cargowaggon bogie van and a string of Transfesa bogie vans. This was another run-through, this time southbound.

After a couple of hours in Portbou, I hopped on a trundler and rode back through the tunnel to France.

The border control at Cerbere is slightly different. Everyone gets off and is herded into the station building. The RENFE unit returns southwards through the tunnel as empty stock. SNCF staff stop anyone trying to use the subway to the other platforms. Inside the building you pass a counter where you show your ID to the French police. The exit from this room leads straight into the booking hall. You walk down to the other end, frank your ticket at the machine and pass out through the exit back on to the platforms (my return ticket was actually two separate tickets: Portbou to Cerbere and Cerbere to Argeles, presumably to facilitate the franking).

If anything it's even harder to see what's happening at Cerbere than it is at Portbou. Again, the freight sidings are up a side valley almost at right angles to the station. There were a couple of shunters and an electric stabled near the station (there's a fair bit of fencing which makes getting a decent angle tricky)

There were several carriages in the sidings at Cerbere and a number of freight wagons, although rather fewer than at Portbou. Most of the freight action at Cerbere takes place behind the station building (the station has a rather handsome trainshed over a couple of the platforms but is nothing like as grand as Portbou), but a string of bogie flat wagons was standing in a siding road in the station itself

After a short while an SNCF unit emerged from the tunnel. This was going forward to Perpignan, so I got on and rode back to Argeles

I waited around the station for a bit, because I'd been told that the Stobart freight from the UK comes through not long after 5 in the afternoon, but nothing turned up and I had to leave.

And so ended my day out looking at trains. I found both Portbou and Cerbere pretty frustrating and I'm certain that I missed a lot of action, perhaps just because I was there at the wrong time of day. The various international passenger trains look very interesting, for example. If I was in the area again, I might be tempted to pay another visit - although I'd probably try to get to Portbou earlier in the day. All-in-all, though, a worthwhile trip out.

Jim