The Causses and Aubrac railway line joins Béziers to Neussargues in 277 km

with extensions to Clermont-Ferrand and Paris. It is symbolic as much

by the diversity of the landscapes crossed and by that of the human communities

served from the Hérault coastal plain under Mediterranean influence in

passing through Aveyron to the high plateaus of Aubrac and Margeride more

1000 m altitude in Lozère and Cantal. Completed in 1888 by the Company

of the South, its difficult route includes numerous works of art including viaducts

emblematic like those of Crueize and Garabit. The South, in a visionary impulse,

electrified it in 1931/32; the energy came from hydroelectric plants, which in fact

a transport route pre-adapted to contemporary environmental protection issues-

ment. But his fate has been called into question many times; she is one of the rare survivors

railway desertification which has affected the Massif Central for several decades,

and it owes its maintenance to the action of individuals, communities and associations convinced

of its usefulness and its future.