Prochain point : lat="49.145076" lon="1.986852"
Marines Station
Terminus of the local Valmondois-Marines line opened in 1891
The Railway line from Marines to Valmondois, or...
Despite its urgent pleas, Marines was not included in the main Paris-Dieppe railway line that went via Pontoise and Gisors and, after 1868, passed through the Viosne Valley just a league away. At the initiative of Leon Say, mayor and departmental councillor of L'Isle-Adam, plans were made to build a line in 1879 through the Sausseron Valley to serve the quarries and farms. The project was initially designed to connect Valmondois to Epiais-Rhus but Marines joined in and was granted a branch line via Grisy-les-Plâtres and Bréançon. The municipality funded the acquisition of the land required. Heated discussions took place in Marines about the location of the station, which many people felt was too far from the town centre. The first train linking Valmondois to Marines left on 7 November 1891, with five round trips scheduled per day.
Rail traffic was disrupted by the First World War, and even more so by the second. So much so that after the war, faced with competition from trucks, buses and other vehicles, the General Council and the branch line railway company, the Compagnie des chemins de fer économiques, suspended the line, which closed in 1949. The former Marines Station has housed various public service departments since then.
... the slow train to Sausseron!
Chorus of a song by the Gars de la Marine, released in 1933 by Le Progrès de Seine-et-Oise:
The little Marines train,
Or the slow train as they say,
Trundles its way,
Through the valley,
Chugging along the tracks.
Near Sausseron,
With its little engine,
It swaggers just a bit,
That little Marines train,
And no one really minds,
If it gets you there on time...
