Ligne des Hirondelles

The line is named not for its trains or its views but for the men who built it. The people of Morez, the story goes, watched the workers on the scaffolds of the viaducts high above the town and said they were keeping company with the swallows.

The Ligne des Hirondelles runs 123 kilometres from Dole, on the plain of the Doubs, to Saint-Claude, deep in the Haut-Jura. Its mountain half took nearly fifty years to build: the first section, from Andelot to Champagnole, opened in 1867, the railway reached Morez in 1900, and the last stretch down to Saint-Claude opened in 1912. On the way it passes through 36 tunnels and over 18 viaducts, and tops out at 948 metres at La Savine.

It is not a tourist train. The service is an ordinary regional line run by TER Bourgogne-Franche-Comté under the name TRAIN Mobigo, with no reservations and the usual regional fares, and the trains carry schoolchildren as well as visitors.

The first hour is easy country. From Dole the train follows the main line east past the edge of the Forêt de Chaux to Arc-et-Senans, home of the royal saltworks, and Mouchard, close to the vineyards of Arbois. At Andelot it turns off the main line and starts to climb, through woods and pasture, to Champagnole.

Above Champagnole the line crosses the high plateau of the Grandvaux around Saint-Laurent, a country of meadows, spruce and long winters, and reaches its summit at the old halt of La Savine, 948 metres up, before entering the 2,080-metre tunnel under the col.

Morbier, Morez and the Bienne

Beyond Morbier comes the stretch the line is famous for. The railway drops towards the Bienne in a series of loops on the valley side, so that the train crosses the same slopes more than once at different heights, on curving stone viaducts and through tunnels in the rock. The Frasses tunnel is a near-closed horseshoe, its exit almost directly below its entrance.

Morez station is a dead end: the train runs in, the driver changes ends, and it leaves the way it came before turning south down the Bienne. The last section, finished in 1912, follows the river through forest and over the Pain-de-Sucre viaduct to Saint-Claude, a town wedged into a valley more than 450 metres deep.

The trains are diesel railcars: single-car X 73500s, and AGC units of the X 76500 class. They replaced the line's old X 2800 railcars in 2003 and 2006.

The line runs all year, but only a few trains a day go the whole way, and fewer than before: since October 2025 the timetable has been slower and thinner. From the timetable that starts on 13 December 2026, two trains a day run through from Dole to Saint-Claude and one comes back.

Dole to Saint-Claude

On Sundays the early train starts at Andelot rather than Dole. The 10:14 is the one to take for the scenery: from Paris, the 07:54 TGV from Gare de Lyon reaches Dole at 09:53 to meet it.

Saint-Claude to Dole

The only through train back leaves Saint-Claude at 05:59, Monday to Saturday, reaching Dole at 08:41. Later in the day you change trains:

• 09:37 to Andelot, then on to Dole at 12:46, every day.
• 17:04 to Andelot, then on to Dole at 19:43, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
• On Fridays the afternoon train leaves Saint-Claude at 14:50 instead and reaches Dole at 18:18, with a change.
• On Wednesdays no afternoon train runs back towards Dole.

So a day out from Dole works on most days: the 10:14 up, around four hours in Saint-Claude, and the 17:04 back. Every train calls at all the stations listed.

Times as of November 2026, for the timetable from 13 December 2026, from SNCF's timetable data. Check them on TER Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (opens in a new tab) before you travel, especially around holidays.

This is an ordinary TER line, so there is nothing special to book: buy a TRAIN Mobigo ticket from TER Bourgogne-Franche-Comté online or at the station, and get on any train that day. Standard fares in the region run from €6 to €41, and Bons plans tickets, sold online only and tied to one train, cost €3, €6 or €13 while they last. Children aged 4 to 11 pay €2, under-26s pay half, and the €20 Carte TRAIN Mobigo + takes 60% off at weekends and in school holidays.

Dole Tourisme and the Saint-Claude tourist office also sell guided days on the line, with the return train, a commentary, a visit and lunch. Fares as of November 2026, from TER Bourgogne-Franche-Comté's fare pages.

Interrail passes are valid on the Ligne des Hirondelles. Interrail's table of railway companies lists SNCF's regional TER trains as covered by both the Global Pass and the One Country Pass for France, with no reservation needed in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

For this line alone a pass is not worth buying: a regional ticket is cheap, and a Bons plans ticket cheaper still. It pays only as one day of a longer trip across France or Europe, where the TGVs and night trains carry the cost; those need a reservation.

Checked November 2026 against Interrail's table of railway companies (opens in a new tab).

The line climbs from the old capital of Franche-Comté to the clock-, spectacle- and pipe-making towns of the Haut-Jura, and most of its stops are worth a few hours. With only a few through trains a day, it is easier to see more than one by staying a night along the way.

Dole, at the start of the line, has a direct TGV from Paris, which makes it the natural place to stay before the 10:14. At the far end, a night in Saint-Claude gets round the thin afternoon service back, and puts the morning train to Dole on your doorstep.

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