“tous les signaux au vert” pour un lancement de Bordeaux-Lyon fin 2022
Railcoop will soon acquire 8 old TER trainsets, bought back from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Once refitted, they will be used on a dependent line Bordeaux to Lyon in 7:30 am, from December 11, 2022
“All signals are green“for the relaunch of a passenger train between Bordeaux and Lyon in a year, assured Friday the general manager of the rail cooperative Railcoop, Nicolas Debaisieux.
The young company had delayed for six months in October the launch of its trains on Bordeaux-Lyon, initially scheduled for June 2022, explaining that SNCF Réseau had not been able to provide it with the necessary paths (traffic slots).
“The negotiations with SNCF Réseau on train paths are also improved», A statement by Mr. Debaisieux before the Association of Transport and Mobility Journalists (AJTM).
For rolling stock, Railcoop will soon sign the purchase contract for eight old TERs sold by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, which it intends to renovate “end of February-beginning of March“, he clarified.
The company promises 13 places for bicycles per oar, spaces for children, cabins allowing to isolate oneself to work, spaces for reduced mobility “reworked” and a catering with a microwave.
Railcoop must also launch recruitments in the spring, Bordeaux-Lyon in front of employer “more than a hundred people“, according to Mr. Debaisieux.
The small company based in Figeac (Lot) intends to run two round trips per day from December 11, 2022 between Bordeaux, Périgueux, Limoges, Montluçon, Roanne and Lyon, in around 7:30 am, resuscitating a transverse link abandoned in 2014 .
Mr. Debaisieux no longer mentioned a date for the opening of the passenger lines that Railcoop intends to open subsequently, Toulouse-Limoges-Poitiers-Le Mans Caen / Saint-Brieuc and Thionville-Metz-Nancy-Dijon-Grenoble / Lyon- Saint Etienne.
On the freight side, the cooperative has been running freight trains between Viviez-Decazeville (Aveyron) and Saint-Jory (Haute-Garonne) since mid-November, but difficulties in recruiting drivers and the Covid-19 have hampered development of this line, he regretted. The wagons are for the moment “very, very weakly filled“, He admitted.