Train d'Artouste

The Train d'Artouste was built to carry men and cement to a dam, and the company that runs the dam still owns the trains.

In the 1920s the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Midi set out to electrify its railways in the Pyrenees, and the first dam it built for the power was at Lac d'Artouste, high in the Ossau valley. No road reached the lake, so a 500 mm gauge railway was laid along the mountainside to bring up the workers and materials. The dam went into service in 1929, the line stayed to serve it, and in 1932 the public was let on board. The red and yellow trains still belong to the SHEM, the hydroelectric company that runs the dam, and the lake's water still flows in a gallery beside the track.

A gondola lifts passengers from Fabrèges to La Sagette, where open carriages set off on a 55-minute run to the foot of the lake, about eight and a half kilometres along a ledge at around 1,900 metres. The trains run from May to early October.

The journey starts at Fabrèges, a ski and summer station at 1,240 metres beside the reservoir of the same name, on the road from Laruns to the Spanish border at the Col du Pourtalet. Every ticket includes the gondola, which climbs for fifteen minutes to La Sagette, the departure station of the train. Plan to be at the bottom 45 minutes before the time on your ticket.

The run to the lake

Out of La Sagette the train goes straight into the 315-metre Tunnel de l'Ours, the Bear Tunnel, and comes out high above the Soussouéou valley. From there the line hardly climbs at all: it keeps to a shelf cut into the slope and built up on stone walls, never higher than 1,940 metres, with rock on one side of the carriages and the open drop on the other. The valley below has never had a road. The water of Lac d'Artouste comes down the same way, in a gallery that follows the railway to the power station's pipes at La Sagette.

Walking on the track is forbidden. After 55 minutes the train stops at the Gare du Lac, at 1,914 metres, and a marked mountain path climbs for about twenty minutes to the lake and its dam. Trains wait 1 hour 20 minutes in high season and 1 hour 40 in low season before taking their passengers back.

The trains

The carriages are open at the sides, with bench seats under a canopy, and each train is drawn by a small diesel. Since 1963 the line has been worked by Billard T60D and Whitcomb diesels, which replaced the three Renault tractors of the opening years, and they still carry the SHEM's logo on their cabs.

A railway for a dam

The line began in 1920 as a worksite railway for the dam, lifted when the work was finished and then laid again, because the dam still had to be maintained. When the public was first allowed on in 1932, at the prefecture's request, the trains ran on Sundays in summer and were worked by retired railwaymen. The SNCF took over in 1938. Today the SHEM still owns the trains, and since 2019 the Régie d'Artouste, a public body of the commune of Laruns, has run them for visitors.

The 2026 season has ended. The train runs again from 8 May to 3 October 2027; the 2027 split between high and low season is not yet published, so the pattern below is the 2026 one. The Découverte excursion takes about 3 hours 30 minutes from the bottom of the gondola: 15 minutes up, 55 minutes in the train each way, and the stop at the lake.

With an Escapade ticket you choose your train up and come back on the last train of the day: 16:45 on weekdays and 17:45 at weekends in low season, 19:15 in high season. The gondola's first ride up is at 09:15 in low season and 08:30 in high season; its last ride down is at 19:00 and 20:00. Be at the gondola 45 minutes before the time on your ticket.

Getting to Fabrèges by bus

From 1 July to 31 August, regional bus 525 runs daily from Laruns (Collège stop, where it meets line 524 from Pau) to Artouste Fabrèges:

Times as of October 2026, from the operator's train page (opens in a new tab) and the Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine line 525 timetable. The 2027 times will be on the operator's site before the season opens.

Every ticket includes the gondola. The Découverte is the standard return trip with the stop at the lake; the Escapade brings you back on the last train, for walkers. A one-way One Way ticket (€24, €14 for children) is for experienced hikers returning on foot, at least six hours on poorly marked paths, and the Campeur (€35) brings campers back a day or more later. Children under four ride free on a lap.

Book online before you come: mobile signal at Fabrèges is weak, so print or download the tickets at home. Tickets cannot be cancelled and cost €8 each to change, and ID is checked at boarding. There is no cash machine at the station. Prices as of October 2026, for the 2026 season.

Interrail and Eurail passes are not valid on the Train d'Artouste. It is run by the Régie d'Artouste, not by SNCF, and Interrail's table of railway companies does not list it, so pass holders buy an ordinary ticket.

A pass does cover the SNCF trains to Pau, the nearest station: the TER without a reservation, and the TGV INOUI with a compulsory one. From Pau the regional buses 524 and 525 to Laruns and Fabrèges are paid separately. For Artouste alone a pass is not worth buying; it pays only as part of a longer trip through France.

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

The road to Fabrèges climbs the Ossau valley from Pau through Laruns, past lakes and villages that make a day of their own; the lakes above Artouste are for walkers with time after the train.

There is nowhere to stay on the line itself. The operator points visitors to hotels down the valley, in Laruns and at Les Eaux-Chaudes, twenty to thirty minutes' drive from Fabrèges; Pau has the widest choice.

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