The Railcoop railway cooperative is considering a “frugal start” in the summer of 2024 on the Bordeaux-Lyon line, with a one-day outward journey followed by a return the next day, a spokeswoman said on Friday. This solution of “a round trip for two days”, which still needs to be ratified by the partners in an extraordinary general meeting on February 22, would require an investment limited to 4 million euros, she pointed out, specifying information from the site of specialized information. Context.
Railcoop, a cooperative based in Figeac (Lot), has set itself the goal of offering two round-trips a day between Bordeaux, Périgueux, Limoges, Montluçon, Roanne and Lyon, in about 7.5 hours, reviving an abandoned section by SNCF in 2014. Other partial services such as Limoges-Lyon are planned, but the young company has delayed its start-up on several occasions, initially scheduled for the summer of 2022.
A reduced service with two trains is planned
The company has signed an agreement with SNCF Voyageurs and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region to buy nine used cars. So far it has purchased two, one of which will be decommissioned to provide spare parts for its future fleet, but it is struggling to complete its financing plan to buy them all and revamp them, lacking sufficient collateral to go into debt. It could launch a reduced Bordeaux-Lyon service with two trains and only need to buy one additional train to do so, according to the spokesperson.
The cooperative, which has already been operating freight trains since November 2021 between Viviez-Decazeville (Aveyron) and Saint-Jory (Haute-Garonne), has turned to local authorities to support its project. The latest to date, the Metropolis and the Lyon City Council announced their entry into their capital at the end of January.
Source: BFM TV
