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

Railways and Culture: An Introduction

hilly sites, and also by the example of le Creusot industrial site equipped with rail tracks. A project such as this one almost exclusively devoted to the transportation of coal, proposed an improvement in intensity and regularity. It was a kind of private road with transportation tools, for medium investment capital with a limited number of shareholders, such as local industrial financers and with the iron masters group of Nivernais directly interested in it. For technology, the Andrézieux line was directly linked with the first step in mining railways in Great-Britain: short rails in cast-iron, sever curves, powered by horses and gravity, slopes following natural difficulties. Other evidence demonstrated the limited change expected from the Andrézieux project: compared with traditional carriages, the coal transportation rate decreased by around 30 %, but other goods had a similar - or even superior rate.

The project was debated by local elites through the different political, administrative or professional instances. There was a large and democratic debate, with pamphlets and local newspapers4, involving local elites and some professional groups such as coalmining companies or traditional transporters. Those were indeed farmers managing their horses and ox in small craft-carriage companies; and it was not a major social change for them, but indeed they will depend from one big Company. We may observe a rapid convergence of interests and a compromise apparently satisfying for each partner, apart from the traditional local craft mining industry opposed to coal exportation towards valleys and other cities. We may note that the coal mining industry in Saint- Etienne had remained a craft industry for a long time, excavating only superficial coal veins and only devoted to the local industry. After 1815, France was drastically reduced and lost the Sarre and Liege collieries. At that time, the Loire coal site appeared as the most promising in France and it was firmly managed by the French Administration of Mines to evolve toward capitalism management and deep excavation. After 1825, the influence of the traditional craft mining industry quickly decreased.

Facts about the preparatory period of the Saint-Etienne & Lyon Railway project had been more crucial. Interest groups were more diversified and quickly in competition. Main groups could be listed in the middle of 1820s as follow: the Saint-Etienne coal mining industry (favourable), the Rive-de-Gier coal mining industry (opposed), the coal traders of Givors and Lyon (favourable), the industrialists of the Rhone Valley (favourable), the traditional trade capitalism in Lyon managing the Givors canal (opposed), the traditional transporters (opposed). Generally, the local councils and representatives followed the most important economic groups of their city. Overall we had: Saint-Etienne, Givors and Rhone cities as Vienne-Isère (favourable); Rive-de-Gier

Mainly: Le Mercure Ségusien and Bulletin d'industrie [...] de l’arrondissement de Saint-Etienne.

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