faux départ pour la première ligne de Railcoop, à nouveau reportée
Its starting signal will not ultimately take place in December 2022. The launch of Railcoop’s first passenger line, Lyon-Bordeaux, will finally be reported again.
During 2021, its schedule had already been shifted by six months, due to the end of discussions with the SNCF. This time it’s “persistent barriers” denounced by the new railway company, in a press release this Wednesday evening.
Its Board of Directors is said to have decided, during a meeting held on March 28, to proceed with a new report, brandishing two factors taken into account for this purpose: on the one hand, the finalization of its XXL financial round (a new fundraising of 27 million had been committed at the beginning of February, with a view to securing up to 5 years of operation of Lyon-Bordeaux, editor’s note), which nevertheless remains today “conditional on the firm and definitive commitment of banks, institutional investors and actors of the Social and Solidarity Economy (ESS)”.
But it is also”the availability of railway rolling stock“which she still lacks, since she”depends on the ability of manufacturers to renovate the second-hand trains available within a reasonable time”emphasizes the cooperative, while for it it is an essential link in its model, in order to ensure the exploitation of 2 return trips per day, as planned so far.
Financing a nascent market, more complex than expected
Despite strong enthusiasm for its citizen fundraising, which has already collected 7 million euros in equity from 12,000 individual members, 200 companies and associations, as well as around thirty local authorities, the cooperative, which employs already 33 employees, today draws up a mixed report:
“IBanking and financial players are struggling to get involved, including those who claim to support the emergence of new economic models and the development of rural territories, faced with a promising but nascent market.
With, in question, the difficulty pointed out by these funders to “bear a traffic risk of a rail service not operated to date”.
What to ensure, according to the first French railway cooperative, “the need to provide more adequate support for the opening of the market, in particular by setting up mechanisms for public guarantees likely to facilitate access to loans”.
Railcoop also claims to have initiated discussions on this subject with the public authorities and intends to continue, in parallel, its fundraising with citizens, businesses, associations and local authorities.
Second-hand trains that are hard to find and take a long time to renovate
On the rolling stock side, Railcoop had already signed a contract for the transfer of several X72500 trainsets, in particular with the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region, as we have already mentioned here.
However, it notes that at the end of the exchanges carried out with the industrialists pre-selected for the renovation of these frames, it appears in particular that “these cannot be available at the end of 2022, as initially planned”.
The cooperative claims that it”continue to build its Bordeaux-Lyon service”, in connection with its various partners concerning, in particular “the construction of train paths with SNCF Réseau, the development of spaces in stations in conjunction with SNCF Gares & Connexions, the development of the on-board catering offer with Isara, or the development of ticketing tools”...
The launch date of the service is not known and will now be conditional on the finalization of the financing plan as well as the schedule for the renovation of the executives.