“In 2024, 20% of trains will be cancelled, this is unacceptable”, complains the association of TER users on the right bank of the Rhône

Annoncée pour 2026, la réouverture complète de la ligne voyageurs de la rive droite du Rhône ne sera pas possible avant 2028, avance l’association des usagers. Midi Libre – C. C.

Despite these cancellations, the number of passengers is increasing on the line on the right bank of the Rhône, partially opened in the summer of 2022, between Pont-Saint-Esprit and Avignon and Nîmes via Bagnols-sur-Cèze, announces the users' association, which is continuing its action for the complete reopening of the line. In particular, it is asking the State to financially support the Region on this “public interest and sustainable development” project.

The board of directors of the SNCF TER users association on the right bank of the Rhône met on Friday evening in Remoulins, in the presence of the vice-president of the Occitanie Region Jean-Luc Gibelin, who is still very involved in the file of the reopening of the passenger line. With all the studies underway for the total reopening of the line, “fortunately he is there to sort out the files with the services concerned”, specifies the president of the association Pascal Rousson.

1. 2024 report: number of passengers and train cancellations

Compared to 2023, the association notes a 1.7% increase in the number of passengers. “We are making progress, that's a good thing. This line meets the needs of users. If we had all the trains, the increase would be even greater”,Pascal Rousson comments. Indeed, 20% of trains have been cancelled, “it's huge. Two thirds of these cancellations are due to a lack of train drivers. The SNCF still can't recruit. The right bank line is used as an adjustment variable, like other small lines. We wrote to the SNCF again to ask that this line not be the adjustment variable. The cancellation of 20% of trains is unacceptable. Passengers are wondering whether or not to continue taking the train, since they are never sure that their train will run”.

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2. The full reopening of the line is delayed

“The full reopening is delayed. The environmental study will not be submitted until April 2026. Work will not be able to begin until then”for the stations on the line that have not yet reopened, namely the stations of Laudun-l’Ardoise, Roquemaure, Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, Aramon, Remoulins and Marguerittes. “However, not all of these stations will be under construction at the same time. Indeed, the Region, Jean-Luc Gibelin explained to us, is losing 400 million euros in budget in two years. The Region is starting to make trade-offs. It has already postponed the purchase of additional rolling stock. With these budgetary constraints, the station works will be spread out between 2026 and 2028. With six other organizations and associations, we wrote to the State to ask it to anticipate the studies, and for the State budgets to accompany those of the Region, for this sustainable development project. We hope for a meeting in 2025 with the prefects of Gard and Ardèche. And we will write to the minister when he is appointed.”
The complete reopening of the line had been announced for 2026. This will not happen. The association estimates that this opening will not take place before 2028. “At the same time, we are responding to a public consultation on the prefecture's website, amendment no. 1 of the State-Region plan on the mobility component for the period 2023-2027. However, we see that nothing is earmarked in the State budget for the right bank of the Rhône, complains the president of the line's users. We are asking that the State intervene and support the Region for this line that it is financing 100%. This amendment has excluded a State budget for the right bank until 2027.” Hence the request to meet the prefect, for this “project of general interest and sustainable development”.

3. Meetings and inaugurations ?

In 2025, the association will continue its tour of public meetings that it began this year in the municipalities affected by the reopening of the line. “People are impatient and hear contradictory things. At the last meeting, there were more than a hundred people, who were happy to have information. We are not encountering any opposition to the project!” The members of the association hope that there will be an inauguration of the PEM (multimodal interchange hub) of Bagnols-sur-Cèze and Pont-Saint-Esprit, which are finished and whose project management was carried out by the Agglo du Gard rhodanien. “The Agglo does not seem in a hurry to inaugurate something that works with the Region”, analyzes Pascal Rousson.
Finally, the work on the passenger reception room at the Pont-Saint-Esprit station should be completed in February.

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