Following a train derailment in January this year, Brittany Ferries’ rail highway service between the Normandy port of Cherbourg and Bayonne/Mouguerre, in the French Basque Country, is operational once again. The cause of the derailment has yet to be disclosed publicly.
The intermodal route resumed at the end of last week with convoy of 12 wagons, transporting 24 road trailers, a spokesperson for the company told RailFreight.com. From today (17 March) it will return to normal capacity levels with 18 wagons, transporting 36 wagons road trailers per leg of the round trip.
‘Unprecedented’ removal and repair operation
The service had been operating five weekly round-trips when a train composed of 17 Modalohr-type wagons derailed on a section of the Cherbourg-Caen rail line just 50 kilometers into its journey of almost 1,000 kilometres. Cleanup operations were described at the time by SNCF Réseau as an operation “of unprecedented scale in France” and one which mobilised a team of 100 engineers and technicians.
Major repairs of the track and rail infrastructure followed. In total, putting the line back in working order was estimated to have cost 10 million euros. Brittany Ferries introduced a backup solution during the two month hiatus in the combi service. It consisted of operating a freight-only ferry service between Poole, in south-west England and Bilbao.
Increase in frequencies
The derailment was an untimely blow to a service inaugurated as recently as July 2025. It raised fears that the company risked losing its ‘combi’ customer base and that other road hauliers would be deterred from considering a modal shift from truck to train. However, the service has resumed with six departures weekly from Cherbourg and seven from Bayonne/Mouguerre – an increase in the number of frequencies operated pre-derailment.