500 million euros in 2025: what will SNCF Réseau’s projects be in Occitanie ?

22 Oxygène trains have been ordered from CAF for the Bordeaux – Toulouse – Montpellier – Marseille line. SNCF Voyageurs

SNCF Réseau will invest half a billion in 2025 in Occitanie. In particular the Traverse Sud, between Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier and Marseille, for which the State has ordered 22 Oxygène trains, worth 650 million euros. Intercités users, often affected by delays and overloaded trains, should benefit. In six points, the announced investments, which will be accompanied by the recruitment of one hundred employees this year.

Four factory trains on Polt and the Transversale Sud

There will be four fast trains at work this year. These giants of mechanics and electronics, working at night, are factory trains that renovate entire sections of track on the Traverse Sud (Bordeaux to Marseille) and on Polt (Paris-Orléans-Limoges-Toulouse), tracks of the regional balance trains (TET), the Intercités.

Until February 14, one advances “between Toulouse and Castelnaudary at a rate of 1 km per night”, explains Catherine Trevet, regional director of SNCF Részeau. Over 44 km, it lays new sleepers, rails and ballast. The second will run from Sète to Montpellier and replace the catenary poles, “ten per night”, in the spring and the last two will do the same in March and then this fall on Polt, between Montauban and Lamothe.

A factory train, called a rapid suite, will replace the catenary poles between Sète and Montpellier this spring. SNCF Network – Jean-Jacques d'Ancelo

These four projects represent a cumulative investment of €55 million, including €12 million for the Sète – Montpellier section.

22 trains for Bordeaux – Toulouse – Montpellier – Marseille

On the Southern Crossing, these projects anticipate the arrival in 2028 of the Oxygène trains (22) that the State ordered from CAF, the Spanish manufacturer, to replace the old Corails. “They will be assembled in the Reichshhoffen factory in Alsace, says Paul Joho, director of transport at the Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Coastline of Occitanie. They will be the same, slightly modified, as those initially ordered (28 units, Editor's note) for the Paris – Clermont-Ferrand and Polt lines. They will provide comfort and reliability”on a line whose ridership increased by 47% between 2019 and 2023.

Deliverable between 2028 and 2030, these railcars represent a purchase of €650 million made by SNCF Voyageurs on behalf of the State

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Partial track renewals in the region

In addition to the factory train operations, track renewal work will be carried out at the stations of Lunel (Hérault), Boulou (Pyrénées-Orientales), and near the Berriac tunnel (Aude). SNCF Réseau will replace points in Nîmes, Lunel and Perpignan and catenary elements here and there, sometimes, as in Lunel, simultaneously with the replacement of the track.

In Nîmes, waterproofing work is also planned, in La Massane, near Rivesaltes, and in Bram (Aude), it will involve the modernization of electrical substations supplying the catenary.

Thirteen level crossing removals scheduled

“Thirteen level crossing removal files are under investigation”, indicates Catherine Trevet. Thirty-six removal projects are listed on the territory's fine service lines. “We are making it a major focus of our security policy, we will remain very active on this issue”, insists the director of the SNCF infrastructure subsidiary.

Accessibility and modernization of Occitanie stations

“We are reaching the end of making Occitanie's twelve national stations accessible”, notes Paul Joho (Dreal). Thus, this year, Nîmes Centre, Agde, Narbonne, Perpignan, Carcassonne and Béziers will be the subject of adaptation projects on this point. SNCF Gares et Connexions will devote €67.70 million to its 292 stations.

The Béziers multimodal interchange hub with its access to the south via a 90 m long footbridge. SNCF Stations and connections

More broadly, “we have more than a hundred projects underway, in terms of security, energy savings, intermodal exchange hubs”, indicates Hilaire Hautem, and a “flagship project”, Béziers, to which its regional management, now based in Montpellier, is dedicating €48 million.

Calls for projects for activities in stations and stops

On the site placedelagare.sncf, thirteen stations are awaiting an economic, social, or associative activity project complementary to theirs. Including Le Monastier, Lézignan-Corbières, Coufoulens, Bédarieux, Rodez, and Marvejols in the former Languedoc-Roussillon. Nineteen projects in vacant premises of the 292 stations and stops in Occitanie have already been completed, whether catering or coworking spaces, bicycle workshops, taxi companies or general businesses.

In Port-Vendres, it is the tourist office that has installed a Maison de la randonnée in the local station, in this general idea of ​​“giving new life to all of our stations”, underlines Hilaire Hautem, regional director of SNCF Gares et connexions.

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