Scenic route
Ligne des Hirondelles
Dole → Saint-Claude · France
Ligne des Hirondelles in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 123 km
- Fastest time
- ≈ 3 h
- Average speed
- 41 km/h
- Top speed
- 90 km/h
- Operator
- SNCF Voyageurs
- Train
- TER Mobigo railcar
- Countries
- France
- In service since
- 1912
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
36 tunnels and 18 viaducts swooping like its namesake swallows through the high Jura: stacked stone arches right above the rooftops of Morez.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 6386667 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 5 m from it
- Checked against the running timetable via Transitous: our line sits under 100 m from the shape of P8
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Read more on Wikipedia (in FR) ↗
More scenic routes
- Glacier Express
“The world’s slowest express”: 291 bridges, 91 tunnels and the 2,033 m Oberalp Pass at an average of 36 km/h.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bernina Express
A UNESCO World Heritage railway: 7 % grades with no rack, the Brusio spiral, and the highest rail crossing of the Alps at 2,253 m.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bergensbanen
Northern Europe’s highest main line: over the bare Hardangervidda plateau at 1,237 m, through 182 tunnels.
Wikipedia ↗ - West Highland Line
Regularly voted the world’s most scenic railway: around Rannoch Moor and over the 21-arch Glenfinnan Viaduct of film fame.
Wikipedia ↗
More train routes in France.

