Petit train de la Rhune

The Petit train de la Rhune or (in Basque) Larrungo tren ttipia is a metre gauge rack railway in France at the western end of the Pyrenees, in the Basque Country. It links the Col de Saint-Ignace, some to the east of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, to the summit of the La Rhune mountain (Larrun). Although this summit lies on the border between France and Spain, the railway lies entirely within the French département of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The idea of building a railway to the summit of La Rhune was first proposed in 1908, and a law passed in 1912 entrusted the construction and operation to the département. Work started on the construction of the line in 1912, but was suspended during World War I. The line opened on 30 June 1924. In a referendum in 1978, the population of the nearby village of Sare rejected a proposal to build a road to the summit of the Rhune, thus enabling the railway to survive. The concession to build the line, and operate it until 1982, was granted by the département to the Société Anonyme des Chemins de Fer Basques, which changed its name to the Voies Ferrées Départementales du Midi in 1914. The original concession was extended until 1994 and, as a result of a merger, it was taken over by the Société Hydroélectrique du Midi in 1989. In 1994, the concession expired and operation of the line reverted to the département. From 1995 until 2012 the line was operated under contract by CFTA, a subsidiary of Veolia Transport, a large international transport services business that also operates several other tourist railways in France. In 2012 Établissement public des stations d’altitude (EPSA) stepped in as operator. The line has the following technical characteristics: Length: Rack system: Strub Altitude of bottom station: Altitude of upper station: Maximum gradient: 250 ‰ Time of journey: 30 minutes Speed: Electricity supply: 3000 V, 50 Hz, three-phase Trains consist of a four-wheeled electric locomotive that pushes two coaches up the mountain, and leads them down.