Researching Rosheim [4]

That branch line ...

... from Rosheim, via Rosheim Ville, Boersch and Ottrott to Saint Nabor turns out to be worth a second look. It all began in 1902 when the area was going through one of its German ownership phases and the company Verin und Wächter started to develop quarries at Saint Nabor.

They built a railway to get the stone out and, almost as an aside, to provide a passenger service for communities dotted along the curvaceous little line.

There was much celebration at Rosheim Stadt (later "Ville") ...

... where the station originally sported a restaurant.

Three diminutive Borsig tank locos provided the motive power.

In 1918, post WW1, the area and the line became French and in 1923 management of the trains transferred to the Strasbourg Transport Authority. Passenger numbers were never huge and a basic timetable of eight trains a day provided an adequate service.

A typical passenger train is seen here at Rosheim Ville, recreated for the later tourist line.

The truck next to the loco was the mail wagon which, as well as transporting bagged correspondence, was also provided with a letter box. This wagon, like one of the locos, is "preserved" and awaiting its long-term fate.

In 1938 passenger services were handed over to a single diesel railcar...

... which maintained the service (somewhat reduced) until closure in 1955.

Stops at Rosheim Ville and Boersch were relegated to a footnote and Saint Nabor was no longer shown at all.

Stone continued to be transported from the quarries, latterly hauled by Diesel ...

... until the work of both quarry and line ended in 2002. But a sort of reprieve came for passengers between 1969 and 1988 when SNCF ran the line as a tourist attraction on Summer Sundays and Bank Holidays.

But the tale is due to have a happy ending of sorts. 

Le Maire (Claude Deybach, au dessus) soumet au Conseil Municipal le projet de mise en valeur de la locomotive Borsig et wagon postal au niveau de la Place de la Gare. L’objectif est de faire revenir la locomotive et wagon postal sur Ottrott. L’idée est de mettre à l’abri et en valeur ce patrimoine aux abords de la Place de la Gare.

A mayoral proposal (in 2012) that the Borsig loco and the postal wagon would be displayed in a specially contstructed building here at the site of the former Ottrott station. And in May 2013 ...

Le montant total du projet est estimé à : 150,000€. Le Conseil Municipal, après délibération et à l’unanimité adopt l’opération de Mise en valeur de l’entrée du village, Place de la gare, pour la mise en place de la locomotive Borsig et de son wagon postal. .

So the Council unanimously (but after deliberation) agreed to spend 150,000€ on the project. Whilst the stations have gone and the little line sinks beneath a sea of undergrowth, it is good to see that its unique memories will not be forgotten.

Absolutely!

 Next Tram Blog : Wednesday 28th August 

Researching Rosheim [3]

A very good train service operates between Strasbourg, Rosheim and Barr in the Alsace region of France. Running every 30 minutes ...

... smart TER trains link this little historic town of just less than 5000 inhabitants with Strasbourg. But, on Mondays to Fridays, the near clock-face frequency is interrupted in the afternoon ...

.... by "car" (French "autocar" = "coach") and note 6 refers us to the separate coach timetable. Likewise the last train of the day is also a coach.

To complete the picture, there is a similar gap in the service in the other direction and the first train from Sélestat to Molsheim on Saturdays is also a coach.

Reference to the "car" timetables reveals a full stopping pattern but with some different locations, hence the confusing gaps in the rail tables.

Lorry driving chum David even spotted the 2219 southbound from Rosheim as he watched bed-time TV in the comfortable cab of his huge blue Mercedes truck. Sadly it was too dark to take a photograph as many of the town's streetlights are switched off at about 2000! It might have looked like this one?

There are a number of possible reasons for this bustitution, which appears undated and thus a permanent feature of the timetable. The afternoon gap may well be to provide a slot for routine track maintenance; a gap which used to be called the "white period" in French railway parlance. The late and early trips will jut be a money saving exercise!

David reports that the vehicle he saw was actually carrying passengers, but "not many". And it did have a proper bus stop at the "Maison d'Enfance" time point.

Before spotting this bus that was a train, David had toddled into the town to look out for other tops and timetables.

And found none! The local buses are run by ... 

... under the clever branding of "réseau 67"; "67" is the postcode number for the region ...

... and they've got a juicy phone number and a stylish web site with a local journey planner.

So fbb searched for a local journey from Molsheim (pretty green flag) to Rosheim (equally pretty red flag).

The journey planner advised a bus from Molsheim to Manenheim (orange); then from Manenheim to Strasbourg (blue) then from Strasbourg to Boersch (orange) followed by a 3 kilometre walk to Rosheim.

Hmm? And we think Traveline is grim!

Frustrated with this circuitous offering and thinking that there must surely be something better, fbb put on his French speaking head and emailed CTBR. Either the chubby one had failed abysmally or, there were no buses in Rosheim at all. Here is the reply email with notes added by fbb:-

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Bonjour Monsieur,

"Good morning, Sir!"

Nous venons de prendre connaissance de votre courriel.

The formality and exaggerated politeness of French correspondance, even electronic, is delghtful! "We have just gained cognisance of your email (courriel)."

La commune de Rosheim est desservie essentiellement par les autocars TER.

TER coaches; we know there's not many of them?

Pour le canton de Rosheim, vous avez une desserte "à la demande" des villages aux alentours;

There are, apparently, some "on demand" services to Rosheim from surrounding villages, BUT ...

rendez vous sur le site de la communauté de communes pour en savoir plus.

Nothing obvious there.

A titre général, pour tout vos déplacements sur le bassin alsacien, un site peut vous être utile : ViAlsace.com

Eventually found it; but it's".eu" not ".com"! And there's nothing there either.

Restant à votre écoute pour d'autres renseignements complémentaires, veuillez agréer, Monsieur, nos meilleures salutations.

"Remaining attentive for any other similar enquiries, please accept, Sir, our best wishes." Sadly a subservient tugging of the forelock is not visible by email!

Service Clientèle CTBR

The reply was back in three hours. Would that UK customer service were anything near as good!

But it is confirmed, there are no "nomal" bus services in and to Rosheim and it's over mile to walk from the station.

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Just for a "back of the envelope" comparison, Axminster (just up the road from fbb's Seaton) has a population of just over 5500 and offers

an hourly train service to Exeter and London

an hourly bus to Exeter

an hourly bus to Dorchester

an hourly bus to Seaton

an hourly bus to Taunton

plus one or two infrequent extras.

And we moan about Public Transport in UK?

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 Next Train Blog : Tuesday 27th August 

Researching Rosheim [2]

fbb's knowledge of public transport in rural France is similar to his understanding of sub-atomic particle physics; i.e. not a lot! But he does know that local rail services are in the hands of an SNCF subsidiary called TER.

In turn, TER is split into a series of regional units that work closely with the civic authorities to deliver (heavily?) subsidised rail networks to the less urbanised areas of France. Thus it is that TER Alsace runs trains to Rosheim.

The present station buildings were adapted to replace the former two storey structure which is now boarded up and unused.

Important and influential yet anyonymous local personages had been photographed at an official launch; ...

... formidable!

The line is single track, the station is unstaffed (with no "guichet") but has a self service ticket machine. Being France where "Health and Safety" is always overruled by "bon sens", there is no footbridge or barrier system on the platform, just a little illuminated sign  warning of an oncoming train.

How very refreshing. And sensible!

The line was re-aligned in the early years of the 20th century, taking the station further from the town. The original line is now the D207 road ...

... and the "Maison d"Enfance" building is where the old station sat.

Until 1954 there was a "Rosheim Ville" station on the now-closed branch to Saint-Nabor. This line soldiered on with limited freight trips until 2002 but the rather primitive station ...

... was demolished in 1976. Despite this, the track is still in place, including a loop at the station ...

... the remnants of the points lever and, of course, a sign warning motorists of the level crossing (below, left)!

Tourist trains also ran between Rosheim and Ottrott along part of this route; more research needed!**

In order to pull these snippets together, fbb has created a simplified map; E and O E!

Today's train service looks very impressive for a railway backwater; the town has a population of a few less than 5,000! But it is typical of the effort (and the money) that is being thrown at these rural lines to encourage travel. Monday to Friday there is generally a 30 minute service between Strasbourg and Barr with one train an hour continuing to Sélestat.

Note 1 indicates trains that do not run on 24th and 31st December and Notes 2 & 3 indicate a "dated" coach link from Barr to  Sélestat, presumably for engineering work. For the record, frequency is halved on Saturdays and trains run all the way from Strasbourg to Sélestat every two hours on Sundays. To confuse the unwary, Saturday (Sam) and Sunday (and Bank Holiday : Dim et Fêtes) times are shown on the same table.

As can be gleaned from the various photos, stock is either four-car or single-car diesel units; and very smart they look. 

But, being France, the timetable is not quite as straighforward as it may seem at first; and we will address the typically French features thereof tomorrow. Meanwhile, readers can enjoy pictures of the three gate-towers that span the main road through the town (travelling from East to West).

 1 

 2 

 3 

Magnifique!

Together with pedestrianisation they must make bus operation a bit tricky!

** P.S. Research exploring the "Tourist Train" between Rosheim and Ottrott has been productive and an extra blog will be blogged on Tuesday. There is much more of ferroequinological interest to this little corner of Alsace than at first would be apparent.

Trucking chum David has set the seedy brain of fbb off an an uncharacteristic outbust of rich and prolific railway florescence. Thanks mate!

 Next Bus Blog (Rosheim) : Monday 26th August 

Researching Rosheim [1]

Rosheim est une commune française, située dans le département du Bas-Rhin et la région Alsace. Ses habitants sont les Rosheimois.

Chef-lieu de canton, centre viticole sur la route des Vins d'Alsace, la petite ville est riche d'un passé et d'un patrimoine exceptionnels qui lui ont valu le surnom de "cité romane", ou "ville à la rose" en référence à son emblème héraldique.

Rosheim is in Alsace which, apart from being the supposed home to the eponymous dog, is in a region of France that has been part of Germany on many occasions. The area even had/has its own language, a derivative of German ...

... taught as a option in many schools. This town sign ...

... is written in Alsatian. "Elsässisch" = "Alsatian" in Alsatian.

fbb's interest in Rosheim was aroused by his European trucking chum and blog correspondent David who, as part of a recent itinerary, settled for an overnight stop thereat. He kips in the kab. Driving a truck for hours and hours on French autoroutes can be lonely; the motorways are usually empty! So David often rings fbb for a chat.

In this case came the telephonic command, "find out about transport here; I'm standing on the station platform. There's a huge freight train parked blocking the loop ...

... and there's a passenger train due! Help!"

The passenger train arrived (southbound) and came to a halt in the platform at the red signal. The freight then departed in the opposite direction (northbound), clearing the end of the loop for ...

... the single-car diesel unit's onward trajectory. Ces français sont fort savants, n'est-ce pas?

L'actuelle gare de Rosheim, à 2 km du centre-ville, constitue un arrêt sur la ligne régionale TER Alsace de Sélestat à Molsheim et à Strasbourg qui bénéficie depuis 2009 d'une desserte cadencée entre Obernai et Strasbourg.

À noter que l'actuelle route D 207 emprunte le tracé sud de l'ancienne voie ferroviaire avant sa rectification entre Bischoffsheim et le site de la gare actuelle au début du XXe siècle.

La gare se trouvait alors à l'emplacement de l'actuelle Maison de l'enfance, dont la place adjacente a été baptisée "Place de l'Ancienne Gare".

La gare de Rosheim est aussi le point de départ de la ligne Rosheim à Saint-Nabor, aujourd'hui désaffectée. Le trafic voyageur a cessé en 1954. Le centre-ville était desservi par l'ancienne gare de Rosheim-Ville, située à proximité de la tour-porte du Lion ...

... et démolie en 1976.

Mais le passage à niveau existe toujours!

A summary of the history of Rosheim's railways in English will be published tomorrow!

And the impressive bus service needs examining at length (?).

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A Seaton Summer Snippet

Something for the Weekend?

fbb is not obsessed with public conveniences, but, in his novo-sexagenarian year, his needs are often more urgent that in more youthful days. So, it is encouraging to see this sign, located at Fishermans Gap, the focus of town and beach.

No distances are shown but it works out at a significant 400 yards [365.76 metres; can't really get the hang of this furrin' stuff!] to the east. There you would find fastidiously fettled facilities close to the main car park and the tram terminus.

Or, the needy could ignore the sign, turn through 180 degrees, and walk 30 yards [27.432 metres] in the opposite direction and there (with no obvious label) is ...

...a block of toilets.

Does anyone at Seaton Town Council (or is it East Devon District Council or even Devon County Council or perhaps the EU constituency for the South West and Gibraltar?) ever read their own signs? Presumably not!

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 Next Bus/Rail Blog : Sunday 24th August