TRANSPORTS SCHMIDT
From Cherbourg to Les
Pieux, Flamanville and Portbail - 1923 to 1978
NB - this is a site of historical record and does not contain current service information
When I first visited Cherbourg as a teenager on a showery summer's day in 1962, this operator was one of the three remaining independently operated bus services from the town (the others were Transports Pasquier and Autocars Choubrac). The light and dark blue buses of the Schmidt company ran two routes from their depot and base in the Vallée de Quincampoix, in the commune of La Glacerie, just to the south of Cherbourg. Both of 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 the town centre of Cherbourg - where Schmidt had an office at number 44 for some years during the late 1960s - to the small market town of Les Pieux, and then on by way of Flamanville and Diélette before ending at the small summer beach resort of Siouville. The basic weekday service 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 middle of the day market 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 between Les Pieux and Flamanville. 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 outwards. 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 a deviation to 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 by 1969 is thought to may only have run in the summer (July and August). In earlier pre-war 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. The Sunday service on both routes was withdrawn by 1973.
La ligne principale, desservie deux fois par jour, reliait la Rue de l’Ancien Quai à Cherbourg - où Schmidt posséda un bureau pendant les années soixantes au n° 44 - à la petite ville des Pieux, célèbre pour son marché, et puis de là par Flamanville et 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.
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. According to press reports at the time of
commencement (Réveil, 11 December 1912) it
was an immediate success with a surfeit of passengers beyond the
capabilities of the 12-seater 'Peugeotte' used initially. 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. Another of the
earliest bus routes in the
département,
second only to the Flamanville route, the Cherbourg - Auderville route
was approved in August 1913. The Auderville route was operated
by the
Compagnie des Auto Messageries de
la Hague.
