The prospect of no trains during the day for six months on the Paris-Orléans-Limoges-Toulouse line does not pass. But in its fight for the SNCF to review its copy, the Urgence ligne Polt association faces a wall.
To introduce the general assembly of the Urgence ligne Polt association, its president Jean-Claude Sandrier found a word to describe the year 2024. A nightmare.
In front of SNCF officials, who had the courage to respond to his invitation this Saturday, October 12 in Limoges, he listed the reasons for exasperation linked to the Paris-Orléans-Limoges-Toulouse: the serial train cancellations last winter, the delay in the delivery of the new trains and the announcement – without any prior discussion – of a project which promises difficult times for users.
Half the trains less
Between August 2025 and January 2026, work to regenerate the line will prevent train traffic between Orléans and Paris, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., on weekdays. The disruptions will even begin in April, with preparation for the operation which will ban trains between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
“The Paris-Orléans-Limoges-Toulouse is now ten round trips. For six months, there will only be five or six, and even fewer on the Brive-Cahors-Toulouse section, it’s inconceivable,” summarized Jean-Claude Sandrier.
Jean-Claude Sandrier, here with the mayor of Limoges Émile Roger Lombertie, and the vice-president of the Haute-Vienne departmental council Stéphane Destruhaut.
The day, an obligation
Why not do work at night? “This portion is part of the Atlantic freight corridor, with forty to fifty trains each night and time constraints at the borders,” replies Bernard Clarissou, project director at SNCF Réseau. “At one time, however, it was the transport of passengers which took precedence over freight,” the audience retorts.
The association is also pushing SNCF Réseau to carry out its work on a single track, to let traffic pass on the other, as was done in the past. “We are working on the possibility of having a contiguous circulating track but this will not be possible from 2025,” underlines the representative of SNCF Réseau.
An old prejudice
While the railway company will announce the timetables during the works from next January, the association is proposing the diversion of one or two trains, in particular via Nevers (Nièvre), the doubling of the trains – with fourteen cars instead of seven – but also the general reduction in prices, at least during the work.
“No one should forget the damage created by at least fifteen years of procrastination, non-decisions, or even the start of abandonment of the Polt line, further delaying its regeneration and modernization”, supports Urgence ligne Polt.
Regeneration reaches three quarters
An observation that SNCF Réseau does not deny: “It is precisely to catch up that we have been at a forced march since 2015.” Bernard Clarissou suggests that this major regeneration project will have reached three quarters of its completion by the end of the year. Modernization work began in 2024, with reinforcement of catenaries in Île-de-France. The “accessibility” of the Limoges, Brive-la-Gaillarde and Argenton-sur-Creuse stations is also planned for 2025.
With political instability and cuts in state budgets, another unknown comes into play, while the association campaigns to reduce travel times or obtain the order for eight additional trains and thus go from eleven to fourteen daily return trips. An interview with the new Minister of Transport is requested. “But between the meeting request and the meeting, perhaps the minister will have changed twice,” commented Philippe Fournié, vice-president of the Centre-Val de Loire regional council.
Reserve locomotive. Amandine Thomas-Commin, director of Intercités, announced this Saturday that the addition of a reserve locomotive on the Polt was being studied, in order to intervene more quickly on broken down trains.
Guillaume Bellavoine
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