The State will invest 450 million euros in the purchase of around twenty new trains to replace the old Corail on the Bordeaux-Toulouse-Montpellier-Marseille line, announced Thursday the Minister for Transport, Clément Beaune.
“One of the most problematic lines in France”
“Twenty trains will be ordered to equip the line, with delivery in early 2027,” he said.
The announcement of this order was highly anticipated, because the old Corail trains that run on this link are at the limit of their capacity.
The SNCF has already purchased 28 trains on behalf of the State from the Spanish manufacturer CAF, destined for the Intercités Paris-Limoges-Toulouse and Paris-Clermont lines. The contract includes 75 optional trains, part of which is planned for Bordeaux-Marseille.
These trains must be built at the Reichshoffen factory in Alsace, which CAF recently bought from the French group Alstom.
Maintenance, air conditioning… Improvements in waiting for deliveries
While awaiting delivery of the new trains, Clément Beaune says he has asked SNCF for “very short-term improvements”.
The Bordeaux-Toulouse-Montpellier-Marseille section is part of the “territorial balance trains” (TET), better known as Intercités, subsidized by the State and operated by SNCF Voyageurs before an upcoming opening to competition.
On the local front, Clément Beaune indicated that the Bordeaux RER project should receive 150 million euros from the State, out of an endowment of 800 million planned for all metropolitan RERs in the 2023-2027 period.
As for the high-speed line between Bordeaux and Toulouse, “there are all the ingredients for the project to get under way,” beginning with the railway facilities on the outskirts of these two cities, he estimated.
The Bordeaux-Dax branch “will be done a little later”, according to him.
Source: BFM TV
