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26-507: Although a line on the St. Gingolph–Saint-Maurice –Brig route was technically easy to build, the Valais government was unable to attract enough Swiss investors to build the line. The share capital came from France. The driving force behind the project was the speculator Count Adrien de Lavalette (Fr) . The company gained a concession for a line from Le Bouveret to Sion in 1853. The object of

52-799: A year later for a line from Le Bouveret to Sion, however, was successful and received a federal concession. The line was planned as an international through route, but never operated in this manner. This was partly because its continuation, the Saint-Gingolph–Évian railway , was opened in 1886 and thus after the opening of the Lausanne–Brig line. The section of the line in France was built by the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM). Passenger operations between Évian-les-Bains and Saint-Gingolph were closed in 1937. Freight on

78-650: Is in the river Rhine (at 47°35′23″N 7°35′20″E  /  47.5898°N 7.5890°E  / 47.5898; 7.5890 ) north of Basel . A monument has been built near it, known as the Dreiländereck . The border follows the Upper Rhine for about 1.5 km (0.93 mi). It then runs south of EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg and then towards the southwest, separating the villages of Schönenbuch (Switzerland), Neuwiller (France), Leymen (France) and Rodersdorf (Switzerland). It then enters

104-569: Is limited to hourly regional trains operated by RegionAlps . These have increased in frequency, after it was one of the few lines in Switzerland where services had been reduced to a two-hour frequency in the 1990s. The regional services now continue beyond Saint-Maurice to Brig. Various sidings in Monthey and Collombey serve daily freight traffic towards Saint-Maurice. In addition to the sidings (Losinger, Givo., CABV, AGIP), only Monthey station

130-408: Is open on the basic network for single wagonload traffic. Although Bouveret is still open as an operating point for freight traffic, it is currently used very rarely. Therefore, there is no daily freight traffic between Saint-Gingolph and Monthey. France%E2%80%93Switzerland border The France–Switzerland border is 572 km (355 mi) long. Its current path is mostly the product of

156-751: The Clos du Doubs region in Switzerland. It meets the Doubs a second time further upstream, at 481 m (1,578 ft). From here, it follows the winding course of the river as far as the Lac des Brenets , north of Le Locle , at 756 m (2,480 ft). After passing the Col des Roches at 920 m (3,020 ft), the border runs in a south-westerly direction, generally following the Jura ridge, reaching an altitude of 1,288 m (4,226 ft) ( Le Meix Musy ). It turns towards

182-614: The Congress of Vienna of 1815, with the accession of Geneva , Neuchâtel and Valais to the Swiss Confederation , but it has since been modified in detail, the last time being in 2002. Although most of the border, marked with border stones , is unguarded, several checkpoints remain staffed, most notably on busy roads. The tripoint where the border meets the Germany–Switzerland border and France–Germany border

208-586: The French–Swiss border near Saint-Gingolph was opened together with its continuation towards Évian-les-Bains on 1 June 1886. The line together with the French line to Évian is sometimes called the Tonkin Line , because construction workers saw similarities in the geological conditions to Indochina . It was the first railway line in the canton of Valais . A 691 metre-long tunnel had to be built on

234-683: The Jura chain, rising above 800 m (2,600 ft) of altitude before meeting the La Lucelle river at 460 m (1,510 ft), between Roggenburg, Basel-Country and Kiffis (France). It follows the Lucelle as far as Lucelle municipality, running across the grounds of Lucelle Abbey . It then turns north to include the Swiss canton of Jura ; it crosses the Doubs river at Brémoncourt , to include

260-499: The Lac du Vieux Émosson in Switzerland. From Grand Perrond (2,672 m (8,766 ft)), the border descends to 1,130 m (3,710 ft), crossing the road from Martigny to Chamonix , before ascending to Les Grandes Otanes (2,656 m (8,714 ft)), the Aiguille du Tour (3,541 m (11,617 ft)), the Aiguille d'Argentière (3,898 m (12,789 ft)), Tour Noir (3,837 m (12,589 ft)) and finally to

286-630: The Ligne d’Italie company founded in 1856 was to build a connection between Romandy and Italy through the Canton of Valais and the Simplon . The connection to Geneva and France was planned to run along the southern shore of Lake Geneva . After several requests, de Lavalette commenced construction. The Ligne d’Italie opened its first section from Le Bouveret (at the southeastern end of Lake Geneva) to Martigny via Saint-Maurice on 14 July 1859. The line

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312-868: The Compagnie du Simplon was bought by the Western Swiss Railways, which then changed its name to the Western Switzerland–Simplon Company ( Suisse-Occidentale–Simplon , SOS). The short Le Bouveret– Saint-Gingolph branch line opened on 1 June 1886, connecting with the line of the Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée in Savoy. In 1890, the SOS merged with the Jura-Simplon-Bahn (JS), which significantly accelerated

338-544: The approach to Saint-Maurice which is the only major structure of the line (the tunnel was shortened to 490 metres during an upgrade of the Simplon Railway to double track in 1906). As early as 1852, a concession was sought for a line from Villeneuve to Aosta . Among other things, this did not proceed because the canton of Valais required two connecting lines, one between Martigny and Sion and one between Illersaz and Le Bouveret . An application submitted

364-590: The border runs south and southeast into the High Alps , forming the western border of the Valais . It passes Les Cornettes de Bise (2,431 m (7,976 ft)), the Dent de Barme (2,759 m (9,052 ft)), Petit Ruan (2,846 m (9,337 ft)), the Pointe des Rosses (2,965 m (9,728 ft)), the Pointe de la Fenive (2,838 m (9,311 ft)) and Le Cheval Blanc (2,830 m (9,280 ft)), placing

390-458: The border which have both Swiss and French passport and customs controls; passengers are free to choose one. These are: EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg which is located in France, but passengers can go to Switzerland without going through French border controls; and Geneva Airport which is located in Switzerland, but passengers arriving on flights from France can go to France without going through Swiss border controls. The Geneva Airport runway

416-542: The efforts to construct the Simplon Tunnel . The following is a list of the locomotives of the Ligne d'Italie and the Ligne du Simplon: Saint-Gingolph%E2%80%93Saint-Maurice railway The Saint-Gingolph–Saint-Maurice railway is a single-track railway in Switzerland. It was opened on 14 July 1859 by the Ligne d’Italie . It connects Le Bouveret on Lake Geneva with Saint-Maurice . The line to

442-794: The lake, the border runs parallel to the shore of Lake Geneva, forming the strip of land ceded by France to Switzerland in 1815 as the canton of Geneva , so that the City of Geneva has a land bridge connecting it to the rest of Switzerland. The border now encircles the City of Geneva. West of the city, it follows the Rhône for some 6 km (3.7 mi), until the westernmost point of Switzerland, at 46°07′57″N 5°57′21″E  /  46.1324°N 5.9559°E  / 46.1324; 5.9559 . The border passes between Geneva and Annemasse , heading east towards Saint-Cergues ; it finally finds Lake Geneva from

468-570: The line gained momentum during the Second World War, when it was the only line crossing into Switzerland that was not directly under the control of the Axis powers. Then it returned to insignificance, so that in 1988 all traffic ended on the French side. Since then, traffic has only run towards Saint-Maurice. The line between Saint-Maurice and Collombey was electrified in 1946 and the rest of the line to Saint-Gingolph in 1954. Passenger traffic

494-627: The south to include Pontarlier in France and again to the southwest to include Vallorbe and the Lac de Joux in Switzerland. Here it reaches an altitude of 1,377 m (4,518 ft), before crossing the Orbe river upstream of Bois-d'Amont . South of Les Rousses it turns to the south and then southeast, running towards Lake Geneva , rising to 1,400 m (4,600 ft) at 46°24′41″N 6°05′12″E  /  46.4113°N 6.0866°E  / 46.4113; 6.0866 , passing south of La Dôle peak. Some 3 km (1.9 mi) before reaching

520-491: The south, at Hermance . The border runs along the centre of Lake Geneva, but makes landfall before reaching the mouth of the Rhône , at Saint-Gingolph , which marks the western end of the Saint-Gingolph–Saint-Maurice railway in Switzerland. A project exists to reuse a now-abandoned line to Évian-les-Bains in France and thereby reconnect the two countries by train on the south shore of Lake Geneva. From here,

546-576: The tripoint with the French–Italian and Swiss–Italian borders , at a point just west of Mont Dolent , 45°55′22″N 7°02′39″E  /  45.9227°N 7.0441°E  / 45.9227; 7.0441 and at 3,752 metres (12,310 ft) altitude. Since Switzerland's accession to the Schengen Area in 2008, there have been no permanent passport controls along the border, although there can be customs controls. There are two airports near

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572-487: The very agricultural canton of Valais, was not successful. In addition, Sardinia ceded Savoy to France in 1860 and, with the opening of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel in 1871, a line was opened from Lyon to Turin , which competed directly with the projected line. The Ligne d'Italie was liquidated in 1871 and a new company was established under the same name. The LI had to be liquidated for the second time and it

598-472: Was extended in 1960 after France and Switzerland swapped territories to make this possible. From northeast to south: There are several other roads which cross the border, but without staffed customs controls. As of the December 2023 timetable change, cross-border services between France and Switzerland exist on the following railway lines (from North to South): As of the December 2023 timetable change,

624-476: Was extended to Sion on 10 May 1860. On 2 April 1861, the Western Swiss Railways opened the last section of its line from Lausanne to Les Paluds near Saint-Maurice, giving the Ligne d'Italie access to the Swiss railway network. The next section from Sion to Sierre opened after some delay on 15 October 1868, bringing the total length of the line to 79.5 km. The company, which opened up

650-600: Was now 116.9 km long. Although projects have been developed time and again to extend the line through a tunnel under the Simplon to Domodossola , sufficient finance did not become available for the time being. The line remained a branch line and the operation's results were insufficient to cover interest charges. Nevertheless, the Simplon Railway led to significant economic progress in the Valais. On 1 July 1881,

676-489: Was sold on 1 June 1874 to the new Compagnie du Simplon (S) for a symbolic price of CHF 202,422 plus CHF 500,000 of bonds. The shareholders lost all their capital and the work, which had cost almost CHF 25 million. The operations of the Compagnie du Simplon were managed by the Western Swiss Railways (SO). The line was extended from Sierre to Leuk on 1 June 1877 and to the provisional terminus in Brig on 1 July 1878. The line

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