Railway station

Archaeologists recognised and located parts of the Saint-Benoît train station, built between 1879 and 1881, during field walking surveys in 2016. Rediscovered following a Réunion railway exploratory mission, these remains are among the oldest railway works still visible today.

The Saint-Benoît train station

On 23 June 1877, the Senate and Chamber of Representatives passed a law to build a port at La Pointe des Galets and to lay a railway linking it to Saint-Pierre and Saint-Benoît. For the railway company – the C^ie du Chemin de fer et du Port de la Réunion (C.P.R.) – Saint-Benoît train station was where the railway began – kilometre zero. It was a first class station including, on the street side, three doors and a window with semi-circular arches, all double leaf and, on the platform and railway side, four doors with semi-circular arches, all double leaf. The masonry work was in basalt cut stone and its gabled roof was shingled. The station had a first-class waiting room, another waiting room, a luggage room, a ticket office, and an office and accommodation for the station master. The railway infrastructure included two main tracks and secondary tracks and a turntable to turn locomotives, passenger carriages and freight wagons back in the direction they came from. The layout changed over time to meet the needs of the service provided by the local railway companies – the C.P.R. and the C.F.R.

Field walking surveys and an archaeological evaluation

The rue des Rails, the chemin Bourbier les Rails and several infrastructure works – culverts and bridges – along the coast in Saint-Benoît, between the former train station and the Rivière des Roches, are reminders of the railway track that once crossed the district. It is possible to follow the line of the former track between the Marine and the Rivière des Roches, marked by sleepers still visible beneath the scrub.

The remains of the former station can still be seen on rue Alexis de Villeneuve, not far from the sea. It is still possible to make out the inscription "St-Benoît" opposite rue Alexis de Villeneuve. The building is composed of three adjacent sections built at different times. Only the first section with the inscriptions, one of which is hidden inside the second building, and its doors with distinctive basket-handle arches were part of the original station.

An archaeological evaluation was made of the site in 2020.