2023-12-09 08:32:36
Morgane Bouhraoua says she gets up every morning in recent weeks, “with a lump in her stomach, with the fear of knowing if [son] train will be late, or canceled altogether. » A French teacher at Pauillac college, in Médoc, she takes the TER four days a week from Saint-Jean station in Bordeaux to get to her establishment, an hour away. And since October, its train line “has been plagued by major malfunctions. »
“The delays are daily, the cancellations every other day, when they are not “ghost trains”, that is to say trains which are displayed and which suddenly disappear from the screens without explanation, continues the young woman. We have reached a stage where we are happy when a train is not canceled. But when there is, we systematically arrive late for work. This is no longer tenable…”
Christophe, IT manager, lives in Caudéran, and takes the train every morning to Mérignac, to go to his job with a wine merchant in Margaux, still in the Médoc. “We have reached a point where we no longer have confidence in the train, because it is no longer reliable,” he said. And we are even more fed up that the SNCF regularly increases its prices, and makes no commercial gesture in return for these difficulties. »
“Hell train on line 43”, “The castaways of line 44”…
Several users of line 42 Bordeaux-Le Verdon have come together to denounce the situation, and are distributing leaflets to passengers. “Since Monday, we have also stopped presenting our transport tickets,” adds Morgane Bouhraoua. That is to say, we continue to pay our subscription of 115 euros per month, but we no longer present it to the controllers, who follow us in our approach. »
Distribution of leaflets on the TER 42 Bordeaux-Le Verdon line to denounce repeated delays. – Morgane Bouhraoua
The Médoc line is not the only one affected in New Aquitaine. A group of users of the Bordeaux-Saint-Mariens line, entitled “Hell Train, Lines 43 and 15, Bordeaux-Saint-Mariens/Saintes”, was created on Facebook, in which users share their experiences and alert you to daily delays and cancellations on this line as well. A user explains that her son “has missed 90 hours of lessons since the start of the school year” due to malfunctions, others offer carpooling when trains are canceled. Transport conditions are also singled out, with exasperated users denouncing “cattle trucks” in which it is sometimes difficult to find seats. A petition is underway on this line, demanding from “the SNCF a reliable and punctual service”. An action of non-presentation of transport tickets, as on the Médoc line, is also being prepared.
Further south, in La Réole, another collective of users, “Les naufragés de la ligne 44”, was also created. Here again, delays, cancellations and the famous “ghost trains” are denounced. » “We are experiencing difficult situations almost everywhere,” recognizes Renaud Lagrave, vice-president of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine regional council, in charge of transport. There are also malfunctions on the line to La Rochelle, to Agen, to Dax… It’s catastrophic. »
When the region threatens to suspend its payments to SNCF Réseau
“We are in the process of reaching an almost unprecedented milestone in delays and cancellations,” continues the elected official, “since the SNCF is currently showing a rate of regularity of trains [qui prend en compte les retards supérieurs à cinq minutes] over the whole of New Aquitaine by 85%, which is very low. Our agreement provides for a minimum of 95% regularity. This means that there will be penalties applied at the end of the year. But that’s not all: after having asked SNCF Réseau, on several occasions, for an emergency plan for Nouvelle-Aquitaine, we are very seriously considering suspending the tolls that we pay to the company [montant qui était de 65 millions d’euros en 2022 et qui passera à 82 millions en 2024, soit une hausse de 26 %]. »
Our file on transport
In a letter to the president of SNCF Réseau, on October 26, Alain Rousset, president of the region, recalled that “ [ces] tolls constitute the counterpart of a service whose quality must reach a minimum threshold, which is no longer guaranteed today”, and that “the region wishes to avoid having to resort to payment suspensions. »
The failures of the network, “aging and poorly maintained”, are singled out by the community. In the same letter, Alain Rousset explains that “TER traffic is regularly impacted by level crossing disruptions and various problems linked to signaling, directly attributable to the obsolescence of the equipment. These daily disruptions are added to the unexpected slowdowns, due to the lack of maintenance of the railway tracks.
“We will recover 17 trains this weekend” assures the SNCF
If these difficulties have lasted for years on these lines, the situation has seriously worsened in recent weeks due to recent storms. “All TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine lines have been very strongly impacted by the three storms since October 20, and we are having great difficulty recovering from them, with 117 shocks in three weeks (vegetation, wandering animals) and 52 damaged trains across the entire TER equipment fleet [qui compte 210 rames] » the management of SNCF Nouvelle-Aquitaine told us on Friday.
“Following these numerous shocks on our trains, we are experiencing strong tension on the rolling stock, with a disorganization of maintenance caused by the priority given to repairs,” continues the SNCF. However, the techniciancentre teams have been very mobilized (working in 3×8 shifts, on weekends and reinforcements from Paris) to enable our trains to be available again as quickly as possible. We will recover 17 trains this weekend, which will allow us to upgrade the compositions on the Bordeaux star lines. »
Work, due to the damage caused by storms but not only, “also had consequences on train traffic. » Finally, “changes in working conditions [des agents] to meet the region’s demand to increase the transport offer, lead to social movements” adds the SNCF.
“We transport Médoc wine to Bordeaux better than users”
“We understand that the storms have caused damage, but the difficulties date back well before that, it is just yet another problem that the SNCF has not been able to resolve,” complains Morgane Bouhraoua. The truth is that the Médoc line is an obsolete line, and it is not considered a priority. Result: as soon as there is a problem elsewhere, we come and take our trains or our drivers to put them on lines deemed more important, like that of Arcachon. Our difficulties are therefore the consequence, above all, of territorial inequalities, and it is clear that in 2023, we transport Médoc wine to Bordeaux better than users, and we make a Bordeaux-Paris more easily than a Bordeaux-Médoc. »
Users working in the Médoc, or Médocans traveling to the metropolis of Bordeaux, find themselves forced to take their car more and more often. “Which is aberrant at a time when the question of ecology is taking up more and more space” underlines Morgane Bouhraoua. “We organize ourselves with WhatsApp groups to keep each other informed, and to set up carpooling when possible,” adds Christophe. It’s quite a gymnastics, and it becomes oppressive, because we are obliged to consult the evening before to know if we can take the train the next day, or if we should do otherwise. »
“It’s ludicrous,” Renaud Lagrave also recognizes: “while people want to take the train, since we have to absorb an increase of almost 33% in travelers since 2020 [95.000 voyageurs quotidiens empruntent le réseau TER en 2023, contre 63.000 en 2020], this deterioration of public transport means that, unfortunately, the car still has a bright future ahead of it. »
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