The government intends to return to operating a daily night train from 2024 between Paris, Bordeaux, Dax, Bayonne, Orthez and Pau, Secretary of State for Ecology Bérangère Couillard said on Tuesday. Answering the Senate to a question from Max Brisson (LR, Pyrénées-Atlantiques), he confirmed that a night train would reconnect Paris with Aurillac at the end of 2023.
“Starting in 2024, the night train will provide daily service to Dax, Bayonne, Orthez and Pau, in addition to Lourdes and Tarbes,” he added. This route through Bordeaux would resurrect the “Palombe bleue”, a night connection abolished in 2011.
Reopening of several lines
In 2021, the State reopened the Paris-Nice and Paris-Tarbes-Lourdes links via Toulouse, the latter line extending to the Basque coast in summer. It also financed the renovation of existing vintage coaches on the Paris-Rodez/Latour-de-Carol/Cerbère and Paris-Briançon lines that had survived the removal of almost all night trains.
“Decisions must be made soon on the consistency of the future night train network, the renewal of rolling stock, the forms of financing, with the prospect of opening operations to competition within a few years,” added Bérangère Couillard.
In December 2021, the then Delegate Minister for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, announced the creation by 2030 of new lines linking Paris with Albi, Bayonne and San Sebastián with the Spanish Basque Country, Barcelona and also Toulouse, Montpellier and Marseille.
He had added the cross links Metz/Geneva-Nice/Barcelona/Bordeaux and Bordeaux-Nice. The night trains, which are part of the “territorial balance trains” (TET, more commonly called Intercités), are subsidized by the State and are operated by the SNCF pending their competition. She didn’t comment.
Source: BFM TV
