Compagnie du chemin de fer Grand-Central de France

The new Second Empire regime decided to give railway companies a long-term monopoly over a specific geographical region in return for a greater involvement of the State in constructing a network of branch lines within these territories.

Several figures in the new regime had interests in Central France, including the Dordogne deputy Pierre Magne, who was Minister of Public Works and subsequently Minister of Finance and was keen on a line from Limoges to Agen, and Charles de Morny, a deputy from Puy-de-Dôme and president of the Corps Législatif, who owned a sugar factory near Clermont-Ferrand.

Napoleon III decided that economic expansion could be stimulated by encouraging the private sector to invest in major projects, and in particular the extension of the railway network.

[Note 1] This would ensure that regions that were not immediately attractive to major investment could be serviced, whilst exercising a degree of control of the companies.

The railways were expected to become more efficient through the operation of coherent routes that avoided transshipment costs and delays between networks; overheads would be reduced and traffic fluctuations could be absorbed.

"[6] From the inception of the July Monarchy, a north-south link lay at the heart of all of schemes promoted by railway interests (the state, companies and bankers).

It is running late and has made its mark abroad before it has in France, leading to an attempt to divert the Mediterranean-North Sea traffic to Trieste and Genoa at the expense of Marseille.

At the end of August, the CF du Centre, wishing to stop its rivals in Lyon and to extend its own line as far as Givors via the Chemins de fer de Roanne à Saint-Étienne[Note 8] and from Saint-Etienne to Lyon, requested that the Bec d'Allier-Roanne line be financed by a loan guaranteed by the state.

This request was ignored as the administration wanted to direct the CF du Centre towards Clermont and Limoges, but Bartholony preferred the route towards Roanne and the Mediterranean (Marseille).

Consequently, rather than seeking to participate in a joint venture for the whole route, Bartholony limited his ambitions to Paris-Lyon and sought an understanding with Paulin Talabot, who had interests in the Lyon-Avignon line.

In 1850, the company sought to benefit from the new concession provided by the 1842 act; first from Bec d'Allier to Roanne, and then towards Clermont, as well as further west from Châteauroux to Argenton-sur-Creuse starting from the line to Limoges.

The government wished to establish a concession to serve the central France and the Midi Pyrenees whilst freeing itself from the influence of the CF Lyon-Méditerranée, which was dominated by the highly enterprising Paulin Talabot, and the increasingly powerful Paris-Orléans, headed by François Bartholoni.

This financial enterprise was to serve the new regime's plans for the development of the nation's infrastructure (railways, transatlantic ships, docks, the funding of urban renewal in Paris and the provinces, etc.).

[Note 14] With this in mind, representatives from the Aubin mines in the Aveyron coal fields (notably James-Alexandre de Pourtalès |de Pourtalès and Seraincourt) tried to attract investors in England, where the plethora of British railway schemes no longer offered attractive premiums, to invest in a line linking Clermont-Ferrand to Toulouse via Montauban to serve the Massif Central fields.

This situation was not displeasing to the government, which had feared the creation of an over-large Sud network (referred to as supra) in the hands of Bartholony (Paris-Orléans) and Talabot (Lyon-Méditerranée).

Gibiat and, amongst the British directors, Laing (an MP), Masterman and Uzielli (bankers) and Hutchinson (chairman of the London Stock Exchange).