Pau–Canfranc railway

The Pau–Canfranc railway is a partially-closed long international single-track standard gauge railway line connecting Pau in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region of France, climbing via the Gave d'Aspe valley and tunneling under the Pyrenees, to Canfranc in Spain. The line is part of transport infrastructure between (Toulouse or) Bordeaux and Zaragoza and is now named the Goya Line, after the painter Francisco de Goya who was born near Zaragoza and died in Bordeaux. Opened and electrified in 1928, it was closed south of Bedous, France, after a major derailment accident on 27 March 1970, which destroyed the L'Estanguet bridge south of Accous. North of Bedous, the line was closed up to Oloron-Sainte-Marie to passengers on 30 May 1980, although it remained open for freight traffic until 1985. In August 2014, the French state railway company SNCF began work on a project to reopen this section, which happened on 1 July 2016. This section of between Pau and Bedous in France is used by TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine passenger trains, whereas the branch to Arudy from Buzy was converted into a cycle path after 2012. Connecting buses run from Bedous to Canfranc, and trains still run on the Spanish side from Canfranc International Railway Station, departing south to Jaca and Zaragoza. The legal title to build the Pau to Oloron-Sainte-Marie section was given to the Chemins de fer du Midi on signing of a memorandum between the company and the Minister of Agriculture, Trade and Public Works on 10 August 1868. The agreement was approved by an imperial decree on the same date, and declared a public utility and definitively granted by a law on 23 March 1874. After completing construction, this section came into operation in 1883. On 17 July 1879 a law was passed (the Freycinet plan, covering 181 ranking railway lines of general interest. No.178 was a line from "Oloron in Bedous (Lower Pyrenees)", and further a line from "Oloron to Puyoô in Saint-Palais, by the Gave Oloron Valley". Subsequently, on 17 July 1886 No.