The Voies Ferrées des Landes (French pronunciation: [vwa fɛʁe de lɑ̃d], VFL) was founded in 1916 from the merger of three short line railway companies in the Landes forest region of Gascony, France.
The railway lines were created primarily to transport timber from the forested area.
In 1854 the Chemin de Fer du Midi (CF du Midi) had constructed a line between Bordeaux and Dax, the Landes Forest, created in the 18th century was by then producing mature trees.
[1] The lines temporarily closed to passengers in 1939 due to a fuel shortage in the buildup to the Battle of France.
Freight on the lines did not end entirely, when the company Voies Ferrées Locales et Industrielles (VFLI) was created in 1998 it took over responsibility for operations on the lines:[1] Trains on the Laluque/Tartas,[2] and a short section within the industrial area of Ychoux on the Ychoux to Moustey[3] and less than 1 km in Dax (traffic ended 2005)[4] were still in use in the early 2000s.