In 1861 Alphonse Beau de Rochas, the engineer from Dignes who invented the four-stroke engine, had the idea of building a railway between Nice, annexed by France the previous year, and Grenoble via the Var Valley, Digne-les-Bains and Gap.
But it was not until 1882 that the military authorities gave their backing to the project, enabling it to begin. To cope with the steep terrain, the engineers adopted a metric-gauge system. Using a rail spacing of one metre instead of the conventional one metre forty made it possible to build tighter bends (100 metres instead of 300 metres), thereby reducing construction costs.
A difficult task that required a great deal of ingenuity and courage. The completion of the Colle Saint-Michel Tunnel, 3,457 metres long at an altitude of over 1,000 metres, opened up the link between the Vaïre and Verdon Valleys.
In 1902 the construction work involved more than four hundred labourers, took nearly two years and had to deal with rock falls, floods and subsidence. When the first locomotive stopped at the Peyresq halt there was much jubilation. In all, the one-hundred-and-fifty-kilometre line makes use of no fewer than twenty-five tunnels, sixteen viaducts and fifteen metal bridges.
In 1886 the operation of the line was granted to La Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Midi and not the powerful PLM company, giving Digne two railway stations next to each other.
It was not until 14 August 1891 that the first section of the railway line was opened between Digne-les-Bains and Mézel. The following year, the Nice-Puget-Théniers section was inaugurated. The railway line finally arrived in Nice in 1911 and was officially opened on 3 July.
The First World War, followed by the development of the motor car, nearly dealt the service a fatal blow. Between 1926 and1933 rail traffic collapsed by 60%. On 15 July 1933 the service was suspended for the first time.
In 1935 the line successfully reopened with new Renault diesel railcars replacing the steam locomotives and connecting Nice with Digne-les-Bains in 3½ hours. After the Second World War the service reopened in 1946.
In 1959 the threat of closure was avoided. In 1967 the French government withdrew its involvement in the service. A joint syndicate, the SYMA, created in 1968 and involving five local authorities, saved the line.
Thanks to the determined involvement of the local population, the railway line linking Nice with Digne-les-Bains continued to operate. But bad weather frequently damaged the line. The damage caused by the torrential rain storms of November 1994 was catastrophic. It took eighteen months of hard work and total commitment from the local population to rebuild the railway line and enable the railcar to start operating once again on 25 April 1996.
An important link between the Mediterranean and the Alps that is indissociable from growth in the region's economy and tourism, the train owes its current existence to efforts by the local elected representatives and inhabitants of the valleys it serves. Committed to a policy of modernising the line, since 1990 the SYMA makes no secret of its objectives of developing its customer base.
Following the devastating floods of November 1994, the population and workforce have pulled together and managed to save the line for good.
In addition there have been a number of problems and disasters caused by the weather. The River Coulomp, and the Var even more so, flooded the tracks in 1906, 1910 and 1914. In 1978 the line was bowed under the weight of the winter snow, preventing trains from running.
On 5 November 1994 the Pont de Gueydan was swept away by the waters of the Var. After eighteen months of closure while the flood damage was being repaired, the line reopened on 25 April 1996.
The 8-year public service delegation agreement was renewed with the SYMA on 1 July 2005. It was continued on 1 January 2007 under the authority of the Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur Region.
Some people believe that the Train des Pignes was so-named because of the soot that covered the locomotives, making them look like the bottom of a traditional Italian cooking pot, thepignata.
Others think it was named after the pine cones (pignes in French) that the city folk used to take home on a Sunday.
Others still say that the train travelled so slowly that the passengers could get out onto the trackside to pick up pine cones.
Lastly, there are those who say that the name comes from a miracle that happened one Christmas night when a level-crossing keeper who was alone with his sick child had run out of firewood. The crew of a night train stopped to give him some coal and then when the locomotive itself started to run short of fuel the pine cones on the trees lining the track fell directly into its tender enabling it to continue on its way.
