SNCF Timetables: Somme Battlefield

[Hedley Malloch]

The local railway is an under-used asset for most visitors to the Somme, Arras and Flanders. In particular the rail link down the Ancre valley is a great help in planning longish linear walks in the Northern end of the Somme using Albert, Arras or Lille as a base.

I use Miraumont station as a starting and finishing point for walks to and from Albert by any number of routes, but you could use the railway link to explore the back area of the Somme (Mericourt, Heilly or Corbie). I think most trains allow a bike and that adds another dimension to your travels.

SNCF now publish the timetable for the Amiens-Lille line on the web and you can find it at:

http://www.ter-sncf.com/Picardie/fiches_ho...ete/ps0201e.pdf

[Paul Reed]

Fine, except when they go on strike Hedley...

[Hedley Malloch]

Paul,

..... this is true.

[ianw]

Paul,

The British rail system now runs so badly at normal times that you simply assume the guards and drivers are on permanent strike !

[Marco]

Hello Hendley,

Sometime somewhere a Frenchman (name long lost to me) posted a message on using the trains in France. I quote it as part of our reply if people inform about doing the battlefields by means of public transport under the motto 'if a LOCAL has these problems....' Do you think the following is no longer the case?:

".... The key is getting to Miraumont Station. From Lille/Arras there are only a couple of early morning trains on weekdays and one on a Sunday. Getting back from Albert to Lille late afternoon/early evening is no problem; there are plenty of trains. The difficulty is SNCF and the way it is organised. Lille is in the SNCF area for Le Nord; Miraumont is in Pas-de-Calais or Artois. One consequence of this is that SNCF staff working at Lille don't know that their trains stop at Miraumont. This sounds incredible, but it is true. I found out the Lille/Arras-Miraumont train service by accident. You can't get a timetable showing Miraumont on it at Lille; these are only available at Albert SNCF. Incidentally the SNCF web-site does not show accurate data of trains calling at Miraumont station either; some trains shown as stopping there do not; they only stop at Albert ......"

Regards,

Marco

[Hedley Malloch]

Hello nsv

Thank you for my reclassification as a Frenchman. I don't know who is more upset - France or me! A couple of points arise.

1. I don't know whether comprehensive paper timetables for the whole of the Amiens-Lille line are now available at SNCF stations. But they are now available electronically at the website indicated. They were not last year, but they are now. You can now find out all you need to know at the website. That's progress.

2. The trains are few and mainly at inconvenient times, but what would the Western Front have been like if Tommy had taken that attitude? "I am sorry sarge, it's only 07:30 - it's far too early to go over the top. Come back at 10:30 with a cup of tea and I'll think about it."

You have to get into the spirit of things, Marco. There is something character-building about getting off at Miraumont station at stupid o'clock, on a dark,wet winter's morning, watching the rear-light of the train disappear into the wet murk and then realising you've got a 15 kilo hike to Albert with only a flask of cold tea and corned-beef sandwich for solace.

Regards

Hedley

[paul guthrie]

Hedley, speaking of anoraks, substitute coke or milk for tea and it sure sounds like fun to me!

[Hedley Malloch]

Paul: it is great. You see a very different side to the Somme between November and February. The crops are down, the fields are ploughed and you've got the place to yourself. It is very atmospheric particularly when you come across a clump of poppies (these survive well into November) or pass by somewhere with some personal meaning to you like Pendant Copse (too long to go into here.)

There were only two shelters on the entire route: the brick memorial shelter at Serre and, before the building of the Visitors' Centre, the Gardien's hut at Newfoundland Park.

[Paul Reed]

1. I don't know whether comprehensive paper timetables for the whole of the Amiens-Lille line are now available at SNCF stations.

Most stations have these - except small unmanned ones like Miraumont. You will find such timetables on the station concourse at Lille, and in the entrance hall at Albert, for example.

I use French trains a lot; in France everything has been sacrificed to the god of the TGV; if you want a regular local train, forget it. From Albert there are only a handful of trains to Lille every day, and only one or two of them stop at places like Miraumont. I can remember when Beaucourt was still open, and used it often in early walking visits, but more and more local stations like this are disappearing. The next one to go on the battlefields will probably be Roeux at Arras.

[Marco]

Hendley,

Do you mean that the original message from which the quote comes was from you?

Regards,

Marco

[Hedley Malloch]

Marco: - Yes.

The local train service in the Ancre is not good - but it does exist. And if, like me, you lived in the Nord and did not have a car, then there was no alternative: you had to use it.

One problem with local timetables is that they are produced by each regional railway (TER). The Nord TER operates out of Lille; the Nord TER Lille-Amiens timetable did not show Miraumont for no obvious reason, though trains running out of Lille stopped there. The Picardie TER Amiens-Lille timetable, (the same line, trains and service) available at Albert, but not at Lille, did show Miraumont. But this is no longer a problem for those with net access.

I never see anyone other than myself boarding or descending trains at Miraumont; its long-term future cannot be good.