A little getaway feel in the virgin forest. To follow the railway line linking Loches, in Indre-et-Loire, to Buzançais, in Indre, it is better to equip yourself with a machete to clear the bramble walls and tall grass adopted by these old rails .
“All the residents complain about the trees that grow in the summer, they spill over onto private property, there is no maintenance, laments Bernard Gaultier, the mayor of the town of Perrusson, south of Loches. We can’t even see the tracks anymore…”
Not a traveler since 1970
Wanted notice launched! Since 1970, not a single passenger has been seen on a train between Loches and Châteauroux and the section going to Buzançais has not seen the shadow of a freight locomotive pass for a long time. This fifty kilometers of tracks crisscrossing the countryside, put into service at the end of the 19ehas been abandoned by its owner, the SNCF, which we tried to contact, in vain.
The stations between Loches and Buzançais.
© (Infographic NR)
“It’s catastrophic, there are places where the rails have been dismantled, pieces removed, everything has to be redone,” regrets Gérard Marquenet, the mayor of Verneuil-sur-Indre. The South Touraine village of around 500 souls still houses an old train station where silence has long replaced the hubbub of travelers. “I sent several letters to the SNCF to maintain it, it was the area. Everything is broken inside and everything has been walled up,” he adds.
The rails crossing many roads are still visible, the level crossings still marked, with their crossing lights and sometimes even their barriers, standing, but out of use. Certain bridges or viaducts built so that the train could cross rivers still only seem to be holding together by some miracle.
An old level crossing in Châtillon-sur-Indre. The traffic lights and barriers are still standing, but unusable.
© (Photo NR, Flore Mabilleau)
Stations that have become homes, others abandoned or destroyed
Along these fifty kilometers, most of the old gate guards’ houses have been bought for habitation, sometimes for more than twenty years. Stations, like that of Buzançais, have not welcomed any traveler for a long time. “It was closed, the SNCF wanted to sell it, but the community of municipalities was not a buyer, and neither was the town hall. The building still exists, but it is no longer maintained,” observes Régis Blanchet, the first magistrate of Buzançais.
Other stations have been transformed into residences, like the prettily bucolic one at Clion-sur-Indre. But that of Châtillon-sur-Indre was purely and simply razed. “Scandalous”plague Gérard Nicaud, the councilor of the heritage commune with 2,700 inhabitants. “The SNCF wanted to sell it to us, my predecessor agreed for a symbolic €1, but not the SNCF, so it was destroyed… If we one day want to reopen it – the line is neither downgraded nor removed –train shelters will have to be built! »
Between Buzançais and Châteauroux, freight trains still run. And an association, Urgence ligne Châteauroux-Châtillon-Loches-Tours (read below) is campaigning for the entirety of this ancestral line to be reopened to travelers. A fight, that of the iron pot against the earthen pot.
Flore Mabilleau
Key dates
1878 : commissioning of the Joué-lès-Tours – Loches railway line.
1879 : opening of the Loches-Châtillon-sur-Indre section.
1880 : opening of the Châtillon-sur-Indre – Châteauroux section.
1970 : closure to travelers in the Loches-Châteauroux section, and to freight in the Loches – Verneuil-Saint-Germain section.
1978 : Closure to Freight of the Joué-lès-Tours – Loches section.
2011 : closure to Freight of the Reignac–Buzançais section and that linking Joué-lès-Tours to Loches.
Currently, although little used, the line is still officially operated between Joué-lès-Tours and Loches and between Buzançais and Châteauroux; only the section between Loches and Buzançais is neutralized.
A bush clearing hike
We knew the hikes to admire the landscape and observe wild animals. Now here is the hike to clear the brush!
This proposal, more political than tourist, comes from the association Urgence ligne Châteauroux-Châtillon-Loches-Tours, a year round, which campaigns for the reopening of the railway tracks for freight as well as for passengers, between Loches (Indre -et-Loire) and Châteauroux (Indre), and the strengthening of the Tours-Loches line.
Hikers and bush clearers will meet on Friday June 28 at 7 p.m., in Châtillon-sur-Indre, in front of the cemetery…
Why reopen this line? For the collective, it is a way of “make the south of Indre-et-Loire and Indre attractive”, “to make road traffic more fluid on the departmental 943”to provide a solution “modal shift”, “to facilitate travel to Tours for health and studies”, etc.
“I aspire to reopen 200%, advances Régis Blanchet, mayor of Buzançais. All politicians say that we must move towards iron to decarbonize. The renovation will cost several million euros, but you have to know what you want: safety and the environment are priceless.”
A study for the reopening of the line is included in the 2023-2027 State-Region plan contract. “But she still has no budget,” says Jean-Claude Durandeau, president of the association, impatiently.
This railway line is now an old sea serpent for many residents. “The people who think about getting it back on track are sweet dreamers,” advances Roger Chevreton, mayor of Saint-Genou. “For me, it’s a lost cause,” adds Gérard Marquenet, the councilor of Verneuil-sur-Indre. Especially since some farmers and residents, living along this old track, are not really up for a new rail adventure.
