Southwest Line

The systematic opposition of the inhabitants of Rouen to the construction of an engineering work downstream from their city (a potential obstacle to the navigation of ocean-going vessels up the Seine to their port), largely caused the failure of the line and threatened the very unity of the Seine-Inférieure[1] department.

In 1870, a Parisian entrepreneur, Fresson, suggested building a railway of local interest between Le Havre and Rouen via the right bank (Caudebec, Duclair), but much closer to the river than the railroad on the Cauchois[4] plateau.

In contrast, the other would connect Le Havre and the département of Eure by crossing the Seine between Port-Jérôme and Quillebeuf on a ferry allowing convoys to pass from one bank to the other without breaking the load.

[4] It was also Gambetta's speech on October 26 to the leading figures in Le Havre that remained famous in the memory of the supporters of the Southwest[5] railroad: "I made comparisons between your docks, between your ports, between the way your products are sold.

I speak here only as an ordinary citizen and I place at your disposal my contribution as an individual and free speaker.But if it depends on me to push this issue, surely you will no longer remain blocked from behind while the sea solicits you from the front".During the next few years, new studies were carried out, with increasing emphasis on a permanent viaduct or tunnel link for crossing the Seine.

The year 1883 marked a turning point in the history of the Southwest link: the inclusion of a railroad line from Pont-Audemer to Le Havre via Lillebonne and the crossing of the Great Normandy river upstream of Port-Jérôme in Table A of the Freycinet project, approved by the law of November 19, 1883, paved the way for in-depth[6] studies.

Two new projects saw the light of day and prompted a public inquiry: As soon as the results of the studies were published, the people of Rouen, who had been silent until then, went on the rampage, led by Richard Waddington (General Councillor of Darnétal and President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry).

This is what Waddington said at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Rouen on July 7, 1900:[12] " As both solutions seem to be equally expensive, the Chamber unanimously believes that the only acceptable solution is the one that will guarantee the free flow of the river now and in the future, namely, the underground crossing chosen by the legislator in 1883".This opposition, which resulted in furious verbal fights between representatives of the two Normandy cities in the General Council, once again delayed the announcement of the public use of the Southwest Railroad.

At the peak of the quarrel, Le Havre town councilors (speaking on condition of anonymity), after inveighing against Rouen's leaders and showering them with insults, proposed a new division of the Normandy departments, Seine-Inférieure and Eure, based on a north–south rather than an east–west boundary, thus avoiding the enemy sisters ending up in the same administrative district.

The difficulties encountered were numerous, and their accumulation explains the failure to build the route: When the bridge over the Seine downstream from Rouen was built in 1959[15] for the first time, it was intended only for cars, and not for railroads.

In addition to its regional significance, the new structure would be one of the links in the transverse connection between Calais and Bayonne, known as the Autoroute des Estuaires, designed to serve the west of the country and relieve the Paris[17] traffic hub, but once again the railroad was excluded from the project.

[18] With the development of Port 2000 in Le Havre, a new project for a rail (or road) crossing of the Seine estuary is being studied (at the instigation of the city's CCI), but would only be realized in the very long term.