TRANSPORTS SCHMIDT

Blue buses from Cherbourg by way of Les Pieux to Diélette and Carteret

 

When I first visited Cherbourg as a teenager on a showery summer's day in 1962, this operator was one of the two remaining independently operated services (the other was Transports Pasquier running a suburban service to Octeville). The light and dark blue buses of the Schmidt company ran two routes and their depot and base was in the Vallee de Quincampoix, in the commune of La Glacerie, just to the south of Cherbourg.  The Schmidt routes passed the Quincampoix depot on their way in and out of Cherbourg.  

The principal twice daily route ran from the Rue de l'Ancien Quai terminus in Cherbourg - where Schmidt had an office for some years (until the mid-1960s) at number 44 - to the small market town of Les Pieux, and then on to Flamanville, Diélette and ending at the small summer beach resort of Siouville.  The basic weekday pattern, worked from the town end, saw departures from Cherbourg in the 1960s at 0715 and 1700, returning from Siouville at 0820 and 1815.  There were additional market day journeys on Thursday and Friday for Cherbourg and Les Pieux markets respectively, plus scholars and works journeys (the latter to the naval arsenal and dockyard at Cherbourg).  Some market journeys served Sciotot.  For many years there were iron mines in the Flamanville / Diélette area, perhaps unusual in that the mines went out under the sea.  After many years of fluctuating fortunes and several different owners, the mines closed in 1962 and the site is now used as part of the French nuclear power industry.

The second once a day route branched off from the first route at Les Pieux and went south through Surtainville and Les Moitiers-d'Allonne to the beach resorts of Carteret, Barneville and Portbail.   This had a morning journey inwards to Cherbourg, leaving Portbail at 0750, with a 1700 hours return departure southwards.  The timings of the two services were identical for the part of the route between Les Pieux and Cherbourg.  Some journeys passed via Le Rozel and a short-lived variation on Thursdays only in 1967 was to omit Les Pieux and travel via Grosville and Bricquebosc, to give those villages a service on Cherbourg market day.  The Portbail service was originally operated all year round but after 1967 is thought to have perhaps run only in the summer months.  In earlier years this route too had been operated twice daily in each direction with a Cherbourg based vehicle.  In 1967 the single fare from Cherbourg to Les Pieux was 2.90 francs.

  A view of Les Pieux in the 1950's

 

Les Pieux pendant les années cinquante

The routes had been operated by the Schmidt family since 1923 and the part of the route from Cherbourg to Flamanville was amongst the earliest bus services in the département of la Manche, having been approved at the end of 1912 for operation by the Société des Automobiles et Cycles Peugeot.  In fact Peugeot had offered to run the routes from Cherbourg to Les Pieux and Cherbourg to Barneville / Carteret two years earlier in 1910, an offer not accepted by the département for two years.  In September 1913 a proposal was put forward for metre-gauge electric trams over these routes - this was being seriously considered until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, after which there was a period of uncertainty for the bus operation through shortage of fuel and requisitioning of vehicles.  Earlier in 1914 the routes had passed from the Société Peugeot to Monsieur Gros, who was an automobile and cycle dealer in Cherbourg - perhaps he was the local Peugeot agent.  After the war in 1919 these routes were amongst the first buses to be reintroduced, being given first priority by the département.

view of Siouville Siouville - terminus of one of the routes from Cherbourg


Siouville - terminus de la route principale venant de Cherbourg

A daily bus service is listed from Cherbourg via Diélette to Flamanville in Hachette's 1921 Guide Bleu to Normandie, departing from a terminus at the Rue des Halles.   Schmidt took over the routes from M. Gros in 1923.  There is known also to have been a SATOS service (operating road services in connection with the railway companies) in the area from Cherbourg to both Surtainville and Denneville (near Portbail); this is mentioned in the Indicateur Chaix for 1932. SATOS (Société Auxiliaire de Transports de l'Ouest et le Sud-Ouest) had taken over operations of these routes from the  Société des Ateliers de la Manche - the latter known also more simply as ATLAS, and who were known to operate a considerable network of routes throughout the Manche département.  They are so mentioned in reference to the resumption of bus services in 1919.  The Indicateur Quillet of August 1934 lists both the Diélette and Portbail routes as operated by E Schmidt in tables 554 and 555 (see below).

The two routes (operated by then by R Schmidt) were eventually to pass in 1978 to the STN (Société des Transports de Normandie - the major country bus operator in the Cotentin area of la Manche département in Normandie).  This was due to the retirement of the proprietors after several generations of the family had been involved in the business, although falling passenger numbers would have been making the routes progressively less viable too.

STN continued to operate the routes on a similar timetable to Schmidt for nearly thirty years, and then in September 2007 the routes became part of the new manéo network introduced by the Conseil Général de la Manche.  The route from Carteret via Les Pieux to Cherbourg continues to enjoy a twice a day service, the section from Siouville and Diélette to Les Pieux is now served only by schoolday journeys.

schmidt autocar 1958   A Schmidt coach on a school private hire in 1958

 

Un autocar Schmidt assurant un voyage scolaire en 1958

 

     

schmidt saviem autocar 1970s   A Saviem SC5 of Transports Schmidt at Cherbourg in 1964 (350 GW 50, one of a pair, the other was 349 GW 50, both 36-seaters)

 

Saviem SC5 de l'entreprise Schmidt à Cherbourg en 1964 (350 GW 50, un de deux, l'autre était 349 GW 50, avec 36 places les deux)

                             (photo John Carman)
    

                        

Quand, encore adolescent, j’ai visité Cherbourg pour la première fois, par une journée pluvieuse de l’été 1962, ce transporteur faisait partie des deux dernières compagnies à assurer encore des services indépendants (l’autre étant les Transports Pasquier qui entretenaient un service urbain vers Octeville). Les autobus bleus de la société Schmidt circulaient sur deux itinéraires et leur dépôt était situé dans la vallée de Quincampoix, sur la commune de La Glacerie, au sud de Cherbourg.

La ligne principale, desservie deux fois par jour, reliait la Rue de l’Ancien Quai à Cherbourg  -où Schmidt posséda un bureau des années durant au n° 44-  à la petite ville des Pieux, célèbre pour son marché, et de là jusqu’à Flamanville, Diélette pour terminer à la petite station balnéaire de Siouville. Pendant de nombreuses années, des mines de fer ont été exploitées dans la région de Flamanville / Diélette, de façon très inhabituelle puisque ces mines se trouvaient au fond de la mer. Celles-ci ont été fermées en 1962, après des fortunes diverses et de multiples propriétaires, et le site est aujourd’hui utilisé en partie par l’industrie nucléaire.

Le deuxième ligne, desservie une fois par jour, s’embranchait à la première aux Pieux et se dirigeait vers le sud, via Surtainville, jusqu’aux stations balnéaires de Carteret, Barneville et Portbail.  Les deux lignes dépassaient le dépôt sur leur chemin, en allant ou en revenant de Cherbourg. En 1967, un billet de Cherbourg aux Pieux coûtait 2,90 francs l’aller simple.

Ces lignes étaient exploitées par la famille Schmidt depuis 1923 quand elles passèrent sous le contrôle de la STN (Société des Transports de Normandie, l’exploitant principal d’autocars du département de la Manche) en 1978. C’est pourtant en 1912 que l’on trouve trace de ces lignes pour la première fois grâce à la société des Automobiles et Cycles Peugeot. Une ligne d’autobus, à desserte journalière, reliant Cherbourg (rue des  Halles) à Flamanville, via Diélette, est mentionnée dans le Guide Bleu (Hachette), de 1921. Enfin, l’Indicateur Quillet d’août 1934  répertorie, dans ses tableaux 554 et 555, les deux lignes de Portbail et de Diélette exploitées par la compagnie Schmidt.

This is the 1968 -1969 timetable for the main Cherbourg - Les Pieux - Diélette - Siouville service. 

Les horaires 1968 -1969 de la ligne principale Cherbourg - Les Pieux - Diélette - Siouville.

 

horaire_68

 

This is the 1934 timetable from the Indicateur Quillet  -    Les horaires 1934 de l'Indicateur Quillet

 

quillet extract 1934

 

                                        map of bus routes 1962

 

I would be very pleased to learn more about this operator if any French readers of this page have further information !

Si les lecteurs français de cette page pouvaient m’apporter des informations complémentaires à propos de cet autocariste, je leur en serais reconnaissant !




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