Buy LA RIVE DROITE FERROVIAIRE DU RHONE : DU PLM, EN PASSANT PAR LA SNCF, AU TER OCCITANIE, UN SIECLE ET DEMI D'EXPLOITATION

Text : Fr

With more than 250 kilometres and 150 years of existence, the right bank of the Rhône, from Nîmes to Givors, deserved a monograph. From its birth in the second half of the 19th century to the present day, there was a history of the right bank to tell. From the initial works, through the "charbonnières" and then the "ma- zoutières" which criss-crossed the Rhone axis, it is a reminder of the epic of the railways. The PLM, then the SNCF, the electrification of the track and its modernization, the convoys of goods and the trains of passengers, one will find the adventure of the railways.

However, this book is more than a monograph. As the line was closed to passengers in 1973, there was a whole social aspect to be recounted: the struggle to maintain and then restore a public service that was to last for almost fifty years. Beyond the machines, whether steam or electric, there is the history of the men and women of this territory, their work, their demands, their aspirations.

The actors of the partial reopening (in its Gard part) are highlighted and their struggle is told like that of those who are still fighting further north, in the Ardèche, the Loire and the Rhône. They are all fighting the same battle. Thus, this book goes beyond the simple Rhone valley to show us a universal project that prefigures the society of tomorrow.