The Saint-Gervais–Vallorcine railway (French: Ligne de Saint-Gervais-les-Bains-Le Fayet à Vallorcine), also known as the Saint-Gervais–Vallorcine Line, is a single-track 36.5 km long metre gauge railway in France connecting the SNCF's Saint-Gervais-les-Bains-Le Fayet station with Vallorcine station and the border with Switzerland (Le Châtelard) through Chamonix. Opened in stages between 1901 and 1908 by the Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM), it is part of the main SNCF network as far as Vallorcine. To Le Châtelard (3 km) is run by the Swiss company Transports de Martigny et Régions (TMR), which also operates the Martigny–Châtelard Railway.

History

Geography

Stations

Connections

Technical information

Rolling stock

Activity

This line carries about 500,000 passengers per year, with wide variation: from 500 people per day in the least busy periods up to 10,000 per day in summer and 2500 per day in winter for the ski season. The customer base is quite diverse, from international travellers connecting with the TGVs, to local transportation, most notably for schoolchildren. It is a tourist line and a public service at the same time. Through trains between Saint-Gervais and Martigny run under the “Mont-Blanc Express” brand. Since 2005 travel has been free between Servoz and Vallorcine for those with a Chamonix residency card and for valley inhabitants.