| Box Width: | 350px |
| Panoramique des Dômes | |
| Status: | in operation |
| Locale: | Puy de Dôme, France |
| Open: | 26 May 2012 |
| Linelength: | 5.2km (03.2miles) |
| Map State: | collapsed |
The Panoramique des Dômes is a 5.2km (03.2miles)-long rack railway that allows access to the top of the Puy de Dôme, in France, since mid-2012.
The railway is owned by the Conseil général du Puy-de-Dôme.
The train has a capacity of persons an hour.
There was a railway with a non-rack central rail on the Puy de Dôme (using the Hanscotte system) from 1907 to 1925.[1] [2] Construction of the railway started in 1906. It connected Lamartine in Clermont-Ferrand (elevation 390m (1,280feet)) to an artificial platform near the mountain top at 1414m (4,639feet). The railway was 14.7km (09.1miles) long and operated between 1907 and 1926 at a loss.
The Conseil général du Puy-de-Dôme voted for construction of the new railway in 2008. Construction work was started by SNC-Lavalin in March 2010.[3] SNC-Lavalin operated the railway under a 35-year agreement with the public service.
Traffic was stopped in October 2012 after an accident involving an empty railcar. The operator was replaced by SFTA, a subsidiary of Transdev specialising in mountain railways, and the line was reopened on 2 May 2013.[4]
The Swiss firm Stadler received an order for 4 articulated motor cars in November 2009 of the type GTW 2/6.
Weight : .
Train length : 36.5m (119.8feet)
Capacity: 200 (112 seating and 88 standing)
In April 2023, it was announced that Stadler, along with local company ACC M, are to undertake the mid-life refurbishment of the four motor cars. One trainset will be refurbished at a time, with the first to be taken out of services after the summer of 2023 and completed before the summer of 2024.[5]