Günter Dinhobl (Hrsg.): Sonderband 7. Eisenbahn/Kultur – Railway/Culture (2004)
I. Für eine Kulturgeschichte der Eisenbahn / Towards a cultural history of railways - Michael Cotte: Railways and Culture: An Introduction
Michael Cotte tion of the railway, passengers used the entire line. The result was around 100 000 passengers in about nine months! Initial success in private passengers’ use transformed the line mission from opening up the coal site to a general line. That was achieved by increasing traffic in general goods and a significant increase in merchant traffic, from the Rhone Valley to Saint- Etienne. Those economic results could be emphasized. Combined with an immediate exceptional success in coal transportation (320 000 metric tons in 1833), such results settled the Saint-Etienne & Lyon as a major European railway line comparable to the famous Liverpool-Manchester, operating at the same period. From 1833-34, the line operated continuously, day and night, every day of the week and throughout the weekends! Nevertheless that did not mean an euphoric entrance of railways within the Continental European culture. There were two large transportation conflicts at the Saint-Etienne & Lyon Company. One conflict immediately arise and was against the Givors Canal. Indeed, the initial railway building effort focused on the Canal Zone, opening direct transportation competition between Rive-de-Gier and Givors as early as the summer of 1830. The second conflict started in 1833-34 with stagecoach companies. Those companies were strong in the Lyon region but they were not able to get the control of the railway as they had tried to during the preparatory phase. They launched a serious campaign in the newspaper and addressed railway dangers and accidents. That achieved a small amount of success in 1836-37: the passengers’ use decreased in these two years. Nevertheless, the regularity of traffic and the speed of trains overcame the transport battle between the two major cities: there were more than 400 000 passengers the year 1840. The traditional working class along the Rhone River discovered the railway efficiency through its facilities at the port of Givors in 1830. To gain time, the Seguin brothers designed and constructed machines for emptying the coal wagons automatically into the boats. The Rhone Dockers were afraid of loosing their employment and started a violent strike against the railway line in July 1830, announcing for the Lyon region the “Trois Glorieuses’’ Revolution.14 There was indeed social agitation with specific goals due to the general economic difficulties of the working class and for enterprises. The railway appeared immediately as a hot spot for social claims in France, with the first “railway strike” and all its resulting manifestations in the summer of 1830. Paul Seguin exerted his deep social sense and talent for negotiation: the company employed the Givors Dockers for handling machines and the others works along the 14 The Bourbon's restoration was replaced by the "July Monarchy” of Louis-Philippe. 62
