Morvan2

The station at La Roche-en-Brenil is 258 km from Paris, 28 km south of Avallon and 14 km north of Saulieu. It is located on the isolated single track railway from Avallon to Autun built by the PLM company and opened in 1882.

Until 1994-5, the line was served by through express trains to and from Paris. There was, then, a period when passenger services were threatened with closure. But from the year 2000, the timetable was improved after pressure from user group TRAM and the transfer of responsibility for local trains to Bourgogne Region.

On Mondays to Fridays, there is a daily freight service, in the morning towards Autun and in the early afternoon towards Avallon and Cravant-Bazarnes. The freight train generally shunts at La Roche-en-Brenil between 13.30 and 14.10 before heading north to Avallon.

At La Roche-en-Brenil there is a stone quarry served by rail, and a transhipment point for logs from the forest.

The freight yard has been recently modernised and old vestiges have been swept away.

The station is staffed ( by Fertis) and trains can pass here. Only two stations are staffed between Autun and Avallon. The other one is at Saulieu.

The station is built on a substantial scale with a large shelter opposite the main building, in which to wait for the up train. An extensive freight yard handles logs from the Morvan forest and stone ballast from a quarry.

Note the flag above the entrance. (Sunday, August 22nd 2004)

March 17th 2002. It is 4:00pm and the Mondays-Fridays afternoon train from Autun arrived on time at La Roche-en-Brenil.

The autorail left Autun at 2:50pm and had taken 70 minutes to cover 59 km with five stops.

It was empty, and no one boarded.

The train continued through to Avallon, Auxerre and terminated at Laroche-Migennes on the main line at 5:58pm, where there would be a connection on to Paris.

Within a minute or so, the southbound autorail arrived with the 14.02 from Laroche-Migennes operated this day by a modernised yellow and white EAD unit.

Note: the yard crane has been swept away in the modernisation of the yard.

March 17th, 2002 - 16.00. After the two crews had exchanged greetings with the station agent, the two trains departed south and north to their respective destinations.

Note that the freight yard seen in the foreground of these photos has been swept away in spring 2003 and the whole area has been tarmaced to create a new yard for loading logs. See photo below.

April 8th 2003. The daily ( Mondays-Fridays) freight train from Autun to Cravant-Bazarnes seen at 13.30 at La Roche-en-Brenil. It was hauled by two modernized BB66600 class locomotives owned by VFLI, a subsidiary of SNCF. The train from Autun was composed of two wagons of logs. But, here at La Roche, the train shunted and added a further four wagons of logs and eleven wagons of stone ballast, making a seventeen wagon train to be hauled on northwards through Avallon and up the line towards Auxerre.

This freight service is now operated by Fertis.

The new gare-bois at La Roche-en-Brenil in August 2004. The absence of wagons is misleading. The photo was taken on a Sunday morning. This is a busy transhipment point for the Morvan logs, and also, to the left, the quarry provides regular traffic for the railway.