Lexos is a railway station in

Varen, Tarn-et-Garonne Varen is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Lexos station has rail connections to Toulouse, Figeac and Aurillac. See also *Communes of the Tarn-et-Garonne department The following is a l ...

, Occitanie, France. It is on the Brive-Toulouse (via Capdenac) line and is served by TER (local) services operated by

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

. A former

Montauban Montauban (, ; ) is a commune in the southern French department of Tarn-et-Garonne. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, and the sixth most populated of Oc ...

branch line also terminated here. It was opened in 1858 by the

Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans The ''Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans'' (, PO) was an early French railway company. It merged with the '' Chemins de fer du Midi'' to form the '' Chemins de fer de Paris à Orléans et du Midi'' (PO-Midi) in 1934. In 1938 the PO ...

. Its imposing passenger terminal building was classified as a

Monument historique () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, ...

in 2007.

History

The station at Lexos was opened on 30 August 1858 by the

(CFPO), when it inaugurated the

to Capdenac line, which it took over on 11 April 1857 while it was still under construction following the failure of the :fr:Compagnie du chemin de fer Grand-Central de France. The station is on the north bank of the

Aveyron Aveyron (; ) is a Departments of France, department in the Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Southern France. It was named after the river Aveyron (river), Aveyron. Its inhabitants are known as ''Aveyro ...

. The imposing neo-18th C station was built in several phases between 1858 and its completion in 1883. It is thought to have been modelled on the then Paris terminus of the CFPO, the Gare d'Austerlitz. The station was connected to Toulouse on 24 October 1864 when the line from Toulouse-Matabiau to Lexos was opened by the CFPO. Traffic was originally generated by the output of the steel and mining centers of Aubin and

Decazeville Decazeville () is a commune in the Aveyron department in the Occitanie region in southern France. The commune was created in the 19th century because of the Industrial Revolution and was named after the Duke of Decazes (1780–1860), the ...

, as well as the exploitation of stone quarries in Lexos. The local lime works was transformed into a flourishing cement plant which survived until its sudden closure in 1994. At the beginning of the 1880s, the opening of other routes to Paris marked the decline of the station. In the 1940s, Lexos was an important railway junction with substantial freight activity and employing dozens of railway workers. During the second half of the 20th century, traffic decreased due to the closure of lines and local industry. By 1999 there were no longer any permanent staff at the station. It is listed as a single platform "local" station (SNCF classification "C" – less than 100,000 travellers per year). According to SNCF, annual usage in 2014 was 4,720 travellers.

Protected status

The façades and roofs of the passenger building, the engine shed and the goods shed were placed on the

Monuments historiques () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, ...

Train services

There are seven trains per day in each direction on the

TER Occitanie TER Occitanie or liO Train is the regional rail network serving the region of Occitanie, southern France. It is operated by the French national railway company SNCF. It was formed in 2017 from the previous TER networks TER Languedoc-Roussillo ...

Line 3 (Toulouse – Figeac – Aurillac local service) that stop at Lexos.Le réseau régional de transport public
TER Occitanie, accessed 11 May 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lexos Railway stations in Tarn-et-Garonne Railway stations in France opened in 1858