In a small town where even bad news arrives late, the station closed its doors last night.
The passengers, for their part, had already been on the platform for years.
Valmorte station ceased all activity after the disappearance of its last train, a local stopping service which, according to the timetable, hadn’t served the town since 1998. The SNCF claims it is a “temporary reorganization,” a phrase the residents received with the resigned calm of people who have been waiting too long to still get angry.
“At first we thought it was late,” says Mireille, a former regular of platform number 2. “Then we realized it had left without us. Like everything else.” The town hall has installed a board listing upcoming departures: it simply reads “soon,” a level of precision the passengers consider remarkable.
To mark the occasion, local residents held a silent farewell ceremony. It lasted three minutes, two of which were spent checking whether a train might still be coming. No one came. In Valmorte, there are now plans to turn the station into a waiting room—“to stay true to the spirit of the place,” a local official explains.
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