Before the creation of the SNCF Railway history started in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine in the middle of the 19th century. In 1830, the first studies of a Bellegarde-Geneva line were done. The decision on construction of the
Lyon–Geneva railway was part of a project to reduce the travel time from Paris to the Swiss border from 6 days to 12 hours, was finalized when a law was passed on 10 June 1853 by
Napoleon III concerning the commitment by the treasury to the construction of a railway to the frontier of Geneva. The Seyssel-Geneva section was opened on 18 March 1858 with a halt in Bellegarde where the station building was in the style of a Swiss chalet. A new service was inaugurated when, on 30 August 1880, the line from Longeray to Thonon via Annemasse and Evian was opened. This service was operated by the
Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM) company. Two years later on 1 April 1882, the Cluse-Bellegarde section of the
Ligne du Haut-Bugey opened. This section completed the line from Bourg en Bresse to Bellegarde operated by
Compagnie des Dombes et du Sud-Est. In 1883, the PLM acquired the
Compagnie des Dombes, and from then on, Bellegarde was exclusively served by the PLM. On 1 August 1904, a fire completely destroyed the station building. This in turn was severely damaged by fire in the night of the 9 April 2003. Two daily services between Paris and Geneva were created, making Bellegarde the first town with less than 20,000 inhabitants to get a daily TGV link to Paris, although night trains to Paris were discontinued at the same time. However the advent of TGV services coincided with the decline of the Geneva – Barcelona
Trans-Europ-Express; on 23 May 1982 the
Catalan Talgo was replaced by a
EuroCity service. and the IC 5642/3 train took over the name
le Rhodanien. It linked Geneva to Marseille via Bellegarde, Chambéry, Grenoble, Valence and Avignon. In summer 1983, a TGV Paris – Geneva/Annecy was created, with trains being split or joined at Culoz. In the 1980s, as with many other French stations, services to Bellegarde were generally reduced or cancelled. After summer 1984, the La Rochelle – Saint-Gervais service was stopped. In 1985,
Z 7500,
Z 9500 and
Z 9600 railcars were introduced on the Lyon – Genève/Evian/Saint-Gervais services, then in 1987, the Class BB 25200 locomotives (made available by the introduction of
BB 22200 locos) were used with push-pull
Corail trains between Lyon and Geneva. Service reductions continued in the 1990s, and apart from the long-distance service from Hendaye/Irun to Geneva, only regional TER services were left. In 2001, the Corail Lunéa
Rhône-Océan Lyon–Quimper service was extended to Geneva with a stop in Bellegarde. In 1991, a project to bring Paris and Geneva closer was launched: to build a high speed line alongside the A40. This operation, named the
LGV des Titans was estimated at 12 billion francs (2 billion euros) which was much too expensive, so was abandoned in 1997 in favour of less costly projects. It was decided to upgrade the
Ligne du Haut-Bugey instead. == Lines which converge on Bellegarde-sur-Valserine ==