A 12.5 kilometre-long rail freight line between Laluque and Tartas, in south-west France has finally re-entered service after a hiatus of almost five years. The line was closed in March 2019 following the derailment of a freight train which caused significant damage.
Since then, traffic had been transferred to the road. Pre-closure, Fret SNCF had been transporting several thousand tonnes of ammonia and soda ash on the line to a paper mill in Tartas. Earlier this week, the first train convoy operated on the renovated stretch of track, used exclusively for freight transport and linked to the national rail network, carrying a shipment of maize for the Maïsadour food co-operative.
A long awaited re-opening
Its operation delegated to Getlink (formerly Eurotunnel) subsidiary Europorte/Socorail, the line has the capacity to handle 200,000 tonnes of traffic a year. It will cater to the needs of local companies with railway sidings such as the Ryam bio-refinery at Tartas, the Maïsadour silos at Bégaar and the future multimodal platform at Laluque.
Work on the line was completed as far back as August 2023 and the prolonged delay in the resumption of traffic understandably drew strong criticism from the Nouvelle Aquitaine region, which had financed 75 per cent of the renovation costs totalling close to 16.6 million euros (the remainder contributed by the French state).
Last year, its vice-president, Renaud Lagrave, explained that after the derailment and at the request of shippers, the regional authority had made commitments to rebuild the track. He went on to claim that on the completion of the renovation work on the line, traffic could have resumed at the end of 2023 and accused shippers of not keeping their part of the bargain and abandoning rail freight.