Trains: Catalonia wants to relaunch TGV Barcelona-Toulouse and Barcelona-Montpellier
By next year, Catalonia promises to sign an agreement with a private operator which will enable it to offer direct links within the Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion.
The Catalan government wants to take up the challenge of the high-speed train between Barcelona and Occitania. By next year, the Generalitat promises to sign an agreement with a private operator which will allow it to offer direct links within the Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion, on a date yet to be defined.
Inaugurated in 2013, the high-speed line between France and Spain via Perpignan is largely underused: every day, four TGVs pass through the Perthus tunnel in each direction: three to Barcelona from Paris and from Lyon, one to Madrid from Marseille. Between Toulouse and Barcelona, the line has not existed for three years
SNCF and Renfe, which jointly operate this international line for a few more months before a divorce scheduled for the end of the year, have never tried to offer an attractive offer for travelers with unsuitable timetables (almost impossible to day trip to Barcelona from Perpignan) and exorbitant fares much higher than fares offered on other domestic lines in France or Spain.
Signature with a private operator
“This rail corridor that passes through the Perthus tunnel is underused. It only works at 30% of its capacity” regrets Ricard Font, secretary general of the vice-presidency of the Catalan government. “We therefore wish to take advantage of the rail discount to develop an offer between Catalonia (Barcelona, Lleida, Tarragona and Girona) and the main cities of Occitanie and Northern Catalonia: Toulouse, Montpellier and Perpignan. »
The Catalan government hopes to sign an agreement with a rail operator by 2023 to enter a barely exploited market.
“We don’t want to go it alone and therefore we are looking for a private industrial partner. Connecting the Mediterranean arc can be rented quite quickly according to our business plan and climate change forces us to develop the train in front of the car. There is a potential market and strong economic and cultural ties between Catalonia and the Toulouse, Montpellier Perpignan triangle which justifies a project like ours. »
The Ilsa consortium, formed by the airline Air Nostrum and Trenitalia, which is preparing to launch on the Barcelona Madrid line, could request the profile sought by the Generalitat.
Montpellier-Perpignan high-speed line
But before you can get on a Catalan train to Barcelona or Girona from Toulouse or Perpignan, you will have to overcome a number of obstacles. Whatever Barcelona may say, the project’s economic profitability is far from obvious: the cost of the Perthus tunnel toll is exorbitant, the train competes with the car and the free motorway (at least until 2025) between Perthus and Valence. And then the approval of the trains will take time. Finally, there are diplomatic brakes: Madrid does not look favorably on the launch by Catalonia of international links. “The Spanish government will do everything to oppose it: operating an international connection would be a victory for the Catalan separatists”, observes a French diplomat who doubts the competence of the project.
Finally, there remains the problem of the missing link. “If we allow there to be a market with trains filled quickly between our two territories, then we make it necessary to build the high-speed line between Montpellier and Perpignan” found a bit optimistic Ricard Font.