Coudekerque-Branche–Fontinettes railway

The Coudekerque-Branche–Fontinettes railway runs along the English Channel and North Sea coast of France from a junction near Coudekerque-Branche station in Dunkirk to a junction near Les Fontinettes station in Calais. It is 41.159 kilometres (25.575 miles) long and AC electrified single track for much of its length, except for the first 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from Dunkirk which is double track electrified with 25 kV 50 Hz. Line speeds are from 80 km/h (50 mph) to 120 km/h (75 mph).

Coudekerque-Branche–Fontinettes railway
Route on a 1920s map
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	RFF
Locale	France (Hauts-de-France)
Termini	Les Fontinettes station, Calais Coudekerque-Branche, Dunkirk
Service
System	SNCF
Operator(s)	SNCF
History
Opened	1876
Technical
Line length	41.159 km (25.575 mi)
Number of tracks	Single track
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	25 kV AC Overhead[1]
Route map 304.8 Dunkirk Freight to De Panne 304.4 1.4 Coudekerque-Branche Line to LGV Nord and Hazebrouck Petite-Synthe Freight Grande-Synthe Marshalling Yard 6.6 Grande-Synthe 8.1 Courghain Freight to Dunkerque Maritime Loon-Plage Craywick-Coppenaxfort 17.6 Bourbourg to Watten-Éperlecques 23.6 Gravelines Movable bridge over the Aa Pont-d'Oye Offekerque Marck 40.2 Beau-Marais Saint-Pierre 43.7 104.1 Line from Lille CF AC to Anvin 104.9 293.0 Les Fontinettes Calais St. Pierre 294.6 Calais-Ville Calais-Maritime Line to Boulogne

The line and a former station at Pont-d'Oye

There is a movable bridge over the Aa at Gravelines to allow navigation of the river.

As of August 2011, an irregular service of 3 to 5 trains run each day.[2]

History

The line was built by Compagnie du Nord-Est and opened 10 August 1876. Operations were transferred on 5 June 1883 to Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord.

The whole length of the line was doubled in 1915, to be resingled along much of its length in 1960. The first ten kilometres of the line from Coudekerque was electrified in 1962 and the marshalling yard (triage de Grande-Synthe) at Grande-Sythe built between 1962 and 1965.

Plans to electrify the line were completed by 2015.[3]

Notes

1. Atlas ferroviaire de la France Tome I Nord. Cologne: Schweers + Wall. 2015. p. 2. ISBN 978-3-89494-143-7.
2. Dunkerque-Calais timetable (in French)
3. Les TER plus nombreux et plus rapides vers Calais, et davantage de TER-GV entre Dunkerque et Lille - La Voix du Nord - 11.04.2011 - Bruno Verheyde (in French)

References

• "La Vie du rail" (in French) (1539). Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Blier, Gérard (May 1993). Nouvelle géographie ferroviaire de la France (in French) (Éditions La Vie du Rail ed.).
• Lartilleux, Henri (January 1955). Géographie universelle des transports (in French). Tome 1: Géographie des chemins de fer français. Librairie Chaix.