2023-04-25 12:53:36
The Railcoop railway cooperative “suspends” its loss-making rail freight activity to focus on the launch of its passenger trains between Bordeaux and Lyon, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday, confirming information from the specialized magazine Ville, Rail & Transport (VRT). “We are suspending freight operations to focus on our passenger project,” the spokeswoman told AFP, without further details.
According to Nicolas Debaisieux, the general manager of Railcoop interviewed by VRT, the end of a timber transport contract, on April 30, “represented an opportunity to modify (the) strategy”, the cooperative not being able to continue to operate these services. lost freight.
Railcoop, which has been running freight trains since November 2021 between Viviez-Decazeville (Aveyron) and Saint-Jory (Haute-Garonne), had just announced the launch of a second freight line and the extension of its scope. traffic to much of the Southwest.
Getting an abandoned link back on track
The cooperative based in Figeac (Lot) has been trying for months to raise the necessary funds for the refurbishment of second-hand railcars bought from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Its objective is “in the long term” to offer two round trips per day between Bordeaux, Périgueux, Limoges, Montluçon, Roanne and Lyon, in around seven and a half hours, resuscitating a transverse link abandoned by the SNCF in 2014.
Other partial services are envisaged such as Limoges-Lyon, but the young company has several times delayed its launch on the rails, initially planned for the summer of 2022. It is now planning a “frugal start” in the summer of 2024 on the line Bordeaux-Lyon, with a one-way trip followed by a return trip the next day.
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