Three years after a partial refurbishment at a cost of €17 million, the rail freight line linking Thouars and Niort, in western France, is no longer in use because of gradient issues, sparking claims of “a waste of public money.” The Thouars council will discuss the matter at a meeting on 24 September.
Local authorities contributed more than 50% of the cost of the upgrade which was completed at the end of 2023, the line having been closed since 2015.
It entailed the renewal of 33 kilometres of track, maintenance and repair of engineering structures, earthworks and hydraulic structures, modernisation of safety installations at level crossings, regeneration and simplification of signalling installations, and modernisation of telecommunications facilities.
One of the main users of the line was quarry group Carrières Roy who saw in the re-opening of the rail connection a means to shift shipments from truck to train.
SNCF Réseau criticised
In an interview with local newspaper, Le Courrier de l’Ouest, Thouars council member, Emmanuel Charré, said that for some time now, no freight trains have been running between Thouars and Niort because there are problems with the gradient along a certain section of the line.
“It appears that SNCF Réseau, (the French rail infrastructure manager) did not take into account that trains carrying aggregates are heavy. This led to Carrières Roy being asked to limit the number of wagons in its convoys operating on the line which for them was not viable financially.”
Mr Charré said provision has been made for a €200,000 study to recommend solutions that would allow the line to re-open but funding it had yet to be found. “I suspect that SNCF Réseau is using the fact that there are no longer any trains on the line as an excuse to drag its feet in finding a solution.”
He went on to claim that recently there had been interest shown by other shippers in using the Thouars-Niort freight line. “We are back where we started. It’s a waste of public money and let’s not forget that Carrières Roy contributed €340,000 to the upgrade. It’s all rather disconcerting and feels as though the plan is to close all these small rail lines in order to congest the others.”
SNCF Réseau was approached for comment.