Train des Merveilles etc.

[artemic]

Hi all,
Will be in the PACA region soon. Does anyone have any experience of the two TER services from Nice to Breil/Tende, and whether they run as they should?
Particularly interested in the touristic departure at 9.15 arriving 11.33 - risky to instead wait around for the 14.44 back from Tende? 15 minutes would be fine but a little more time to explore might be nice.
I am aware of SNCF's reputation in this regard but is there likely to be some alternative put on if the TER is cancelled? I'm sure Tende is lovely but 3 hours would be enough!

Many thanks in advance

 

[nwales58]

Dates or days of week?
There is an 1145 Tende-Nice.
Or break the journey and have lunch, don't know the area so can't recommend where.
Or make a full day, carry on to Cuneo (on the flat but town on promontory with mountains on 3 sides) and back, via Ventimiglia one way?

 

[artemic]

Dates or days of week?
There is an 1145 Tende-Nice.
Or break the journey and have lunch, don't know the area so can't recommend where.
Or make a full day, carry on to Cuneo (on the flat but town on promontory with mountains on 3 sides) and back, via Ventimiglia one way?

It will be some time in the next week or so (dependent on when we decide to visit) - although as I understand it the tour guides are only on the train on weekends at this time of year.
This is the main decision really, lunch in Tende would be nice but I don't want to be stuck after (although there are worse places I suppose). The 1145 would only leave us a few minutes, perhaps enough for a coffee.
It would be nice to go round via Italy but I'm not sure if there will be time.
Edit: and I presume the Alpes-Maritimes department day ticket would not be valid on Trenitalia services

 

[nwales58]

Pass Journée is TER only as I understand it. PACA day rovers used to be holiday periods but I see no restriction now.

I don't see a 1444 back from Tende on any day of the week on sncf-connect.com
You could return on the same service as far as Breil or beyond then have a choice of trains every 2 hours or so.
From the map, Breil old village is half a mile south on the other side of the river. Sospel looks attractive too for a wander, could be worth another stop.

 

[artemic]

Pass Journée is TER only as I understand it. PACA day rovers used to be holiday periods but I see no restriction now.

I don't see a 1444 back from Tende on any day of the week on sncf-connect.com
You could return on the same service as far as Breil or beyond then have a choice of trains every 2 hours or so.
From the map, Breil old village is half a mile south on the other side of the river. Sospel looks attractive too for a wander, could be worth another stop.

Many thanks. I have realised that I read the timetable wrong - the 1444 starts from the 29th of April. At the moment it's running half an hour earlier only from Breil.
I'll have a look at Breil and Sospel in that case, less worry about getting stranded.
There appears to be a bus to Breil around 1pm but it only runs on weekdays. Oh well

 

[30907]

The line is well worth doing as far as Tende, which has an interesting Musee des Merveilles about the prehistoric carvings (closed Tuesdays), though there wasn't a huge choice of eateries IIRC (it was a Monday and it felt very low season).

I would really recommend visiting Saorge as part of the trip. The easiest way to do this is probably to take the 25 bus from Tende or Breil - it does stop at Fontan-Saorge Station but train and (mini)bus don't coordinate well. Bus fares are 1 or 2 EUR, can't remember which. Or you can walk if you're energetic.
We had an excellent lunch but had to wait for a table as it was a Sunday.

Breil village centre is nice and much less touristy, not visited Sospel.

 

[artemic]

Hi all,
Just reporting back from the Vallée des Merveilles!

Firstly, a notice: the guide informed us that from the end of the summer (ie this September 2024) the line to Tende will be closed completely for 16 months for modernisation until December 2025. So if you want to visit, do so this summer! (Or prepare for buses!)
Another source here (in French):

La ligne ferroviaire Nice-Breil complètement coupée pendant 16 mois dès septembre - ICI

Les grands travaux de réfection et d'amélioration de la ligne entre Nice, Breil-sur-Roya et Tende vont entrainer l'arrêt total du trafic des trains à partir de septembre 2024. Un choix pour mener des travaux rapides mais qui vont occasionner des soucis d'organisation pour les usagers.

www.francebleu.fr

On the bright side they are hoping it will mean the speed limit can be brought back up to 80kph or even 100kph. Currently the train is slower - we were told around 40kph - particularly once you are in the valleys.

Sadly we had no time to visit Tende, although we did ride the train all the way up and back, stopping off at Breil-sur-Roya on the return. The tour guide on the way up was excellent, very knowledgeable guide who gave both French and English commentary all the way up to Tende. Not sure about other languages but she came through the train before we left Nice to let everyone know which train to be in for the narration (and thereby to be in the other one if you can't stand it!) and to see who was on board.
There was a mechanical failure on the train and we were expecting a delay of some sort but it ended up only 5 minutes late which we made back in no time. The driver even had time to slow down at some of the more impressive landmarks!
There are a lot of trees which means if you want pictures you will need to be ready to take them in clearings! Mobile signal was surprisingly even working in Tende(!) although a lot of the line is tunnel as well so keep that in mind. In any case we didn't use our phones for much other than photography
There is definitely a better side to be on! (As I recall it is the left side as you go up) The train empties out further along the valley (many people seem to get off at or before La Trinite as well) so it's not the end of the world, but I can imagine in the summer you might be a bit disappointed.
Breil-sur-Roya was a lovely village (We visited on a Sunday so there was only the one restaurant open and not much else) and well worth the time we had there. Indeed not very touristy but more the "old France" that we were looking for.
Sospeil seemed popular with cyclists, although I can't comment on that
Unfortunately in October 2020 the Roya valley flooded catastrophically along with a lot of the valleys in Alpes-Maritimes, and there are still reminders of this as well as some construction about and some more modern road bridges down in the valley replacing the ones which were destroyed. Whether construction spoils the view is up to you - there is still plenty historic to see and they seem perfectly aware of this heritage.

Well worth a visit if you are spare a few hours in Nice (and certainly once the third train to Tende starts up later in April)!

Edit: There is also a railway museum in Breil, run by a local railway workers group AIUI. They had quite a few trains out in the station area as well as the sheds, including the previous Train des Merveilles diesel railcars. Not sure if it is open yet but I imagine it will be open from May if not - check their Facebook page.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

In a different era (1986) I travelled on the Nice-Breil-Tende-Cuneo line when there were through SNCF services from Nice, making an easy day trip.
Apart from the wonderful views of the Alpes Maritimes, there were three incidents which made the trip special (it was in March).
First, the friendly SNCF ingénieur, seeing I was an interested tourist, invited me into the cab of the DMU for much of the route.
When I mentioned an interest in railways, he was keen to tell me how much he enjoyed his recent trip on the West Highland Line in Scotland!
At Limone (the Italian border stop), it was demanded by Italian border guards that I stop photographing the station (this was pre-Schengen, and I think there was some border dispute going on).
On the return journey at Breil, a forest fire had broken out in the mountains above the town, and I had a grandstand view of the way planes were dropping water on the fire.
All very interesting, and in a region I would love to go back to.
Pre-1860, this region was part of Piedmont/Savoy/Sardinia of course, not France.

 

[30907]

The Nice-Breil section (which was built post WW1 IIRC to connect the ex-Italian area with the departmental capital and the rest of France) has suffered repeatedly from unstable geology. Meanwhile Breil-Tende is maintained (or not) by Italy but mostly used by SNCF, so there are arguments about who pays and meanwhile the trains are slow....

We stayed 2 nights in Breil and enjoyed it - "old France" it is!