It all started four years ago, when the inhabitants of Aix-les-Bains (Savoie), driven by ecological concerns and a historical passion, imagined a crazy project: to put back on track the cogwheel train linking the station spa at Mont Revard, which overlooks Lake Bourget at 1,562 meters.
The 10 kilometer line was put into service in 1892 thanks to Swiss investors, in order to provide service to Revard, the first French ski resort at the beginning of the century. But faced with competition from the cable car in 1935, it ceased to operate two years later. Today, all that remains of the railway line is a fabulous walking path, offering views of the Alps, Jura and Dauphiné massifs, as well as a few works of art. When it was inaugurated at the end of the 19th century, it took an hour and fifteen minutes to reach the top of the mountain, with essential stops to reload the locomotive with coal and water.
A program considered too expensive
The project today has little to do: its promoters plan to install an electric cogwheel train, capable of reaching the Revard station in thirty minutes, with the aim of reducing pollution linked to road traffic . Some winter weekends, there are up to 3,000 cars a day queuing up on departmental road 913 giving access to one of the largest Nordic ski plateaus in Europe.
“Ten years ago, Puy-de-Dôme successfully restarted an electric cogwheel train: so why not us?” asks André Carret, Aix president of an association for the protection of the old track. With his colleagues, they hope to create a sufficient vector of tourism to compensate for the desertion of spa guests from the spa.
However, the idea of the train, which appeared on the program of one of the candidates in the last municipal elections, remains in the cards. At the town hall of Aix-les-Bains, the program is considered too expensive (80 million euros). “We have to rebuild the line, buy rolling stock, not to mention the problems of plots of private land to be recovered”, explains a close friend of the mayor.
Not enough to lower the morale of the members of the Alpes Anim’ Action collective, organizer of an online subscription to raise funds. Good news: in early 2022, the Grand Lac agglomeration community, until then fiercely opposed to the project, agreed to launch a feasibility study. A first flashing light for the little train of Aix-les-Bains.