Structural work to four tunnels on the line between Poitiers and Bordeaux, in western France, will allow the passage of Brittany Ferries’ recently-launched Cherbourg-Bayonne rail highway, according to SNCF Réseau. The French state is covering 85% of the 15.4 million euros being spent on the upgrading project, the remainder by the rail infrastructure manager, within the framework of an ongoing national investment programme to develop rail freight.
Modernisation work began last month on four tunnels – Les Bachées (426 meters-long), Les Plans (504 meters), Angoulême (780 meters) and Le Livernan (1,468 meters) – and is scheduled for completion end-April 2026. Brittany Ferries’ combined road-rail freight service currently takes two alternative itineraries – either via Nantes, La Rochelle and Saintes or via Niort and Saintes on the other, an SNCF Réseau spokesperson told RailFreight.com.
It covers a distance of almost 1,000 kilometers and operates five weekly return trips. Each train is currently composed of 18 Modalohr-type wagons with double pockets, allowing 36 unaccompanied trailers to be transported and loaded and unloaded using specialised horizontal handling facilities. However, capacity is expected to increase to 21 wagons (42 trailers) in 2026.
Expansion plans
Earlier this month, Brittany Ferries’ confirmed to RailFreight.com that it was looking to expand the range of goods the rail highway was transporting, one potential market being perishables shipments between Spain and the UK to stimulate. “We are counting on the fruit and vegetable export season, which runs from mid-October to the end of May, to the UK,” Fabrice Turquet, commercial director for the Iberian market at Brittany Ferries, underlined. There are also plans to handle hazardous goods, in the first instance, small quantities of cosmetics and perfumes.
