However, the 17.8 km (11.1 mi) long section between Saint-Gingolph and Évian-les-Bains, along the southeastern shore of Lake Geneva (Lac Léman), has been out of service since 1998.

On 7 September 1852, Vaudois investors requested a concession from the Valais Council of States for a Villeneuve - Aosta railway.

From 1986–1998, the tourist train Rive-Bleue Express ran between Le Bouveret and Évian, maintaining the French part of the railway.

[9] After the sale of the rolling stock of the tourist train "Rive-Bleue Express", the local French authorities initially preferred to convert the railway into a bikeway rather than work towards its reopening.

However, this idea was quickly abandoned, mainly due to international conventions preventing the downgrading of the railway and its cost (100,000 euros per kilometer).

However, these proposals did not meet with the approval of the local and national authorities,[11] while the reopening of the railway, which also had its supporters,[12] came back to the fore.

It calls for the pre-project studies to be launched immediately and reaffirms its desire for a project compatible with Swiss technology (power supply, signaling, and techniques identical to those of the Pontarlier-Les Verrières railway) and the constraints of the areas crossed (urban, semi-urban, rural).

Finally, it hopes that the French State and the RFF will quickly commit to providing their share of the funding for this project.On 16 March 2009 the President of the Rhône-Alpes Regional Council, Jean-Jack Queyranne, announced that a preliminary study would soon be launched.

[20][21] On 20 February 2020, about three months after the full opening of the Léman Express network, a steering committee composed of Swiss and French representatives met to revive the missing 17 km (11 mi) of track.

[23] On the French side, RFF and SNCF are investing part of the 48 million euros for the installation of automatic signaling (BAL) between Évian and Annemasse.

With the completion of the CEVA railway, trains will be able to run hourly from Geneva to Thonon-les-Bains, Evian-les-Bains, St. Gingolph, Martigny, Sion, and Brig.

[23] However, freight transport, as mentioned in some speeches,[24] does not seem feasible due to the profile of the railway, as shown in a study by Réseau ferré de France in 2002.