[ RURAL RAILWAYS IN FRANCE ][ CHEMINS DE FER RURAUX DE FRANCE ]
This is a really delightful country station, located 20km (12 miles) from Besançon, on the line to Morteau and Switzerland. About six trains a day stop here, and you can even catch a train to La Chaux de Fonds in Switzerland.
When the station opened in August 1884, this would have been a major event for the village, in the absence of any motor vehicles. And a year later the station became a junction, with a branch line serving an even more remote river valley, Ornans,(closed to passengers 1955)
We can dream of these times as we visit the surprisingly well kept station of L'Hôpital-du-Gros-Bois on June 26, 2002.
Welcome to station square, one summer's afternoon. The ticket office is closed and locked, but through the window, it can be seen to be well kept and clean. The door is new. Outside, two children speed around on bicycles, otherwise there is no activity.
Here we are looking south. Trains can pass here on the single track line. Mature trees cluster at the north end of the platform, and the station is situated on the edge of the village
Looking north towards Besançon, the station basks peacefully in the late afternoon sunshine, more than 115 years old, but confident in the style of its architecture, the stone edged walls, platform canopy, shuttered upper floor windows (for the station master) and the trees framing the site.
New doors, new platform benches, this is unusual (!). The blue machine dispenses tickets
Even the freight shed survives in good condition, witness to a busy past life, before construction of the main road, 1 km away.
An X TER railcar pauses at L'Hôpital-du-GrosBois at 18:29 with the 17:10 from La Chaux-de-Fonds to Besançon on June 26, 2002.
