The timetable for the complete reopening of the right bank passenger line has not been established, while the Region and the association were counting on 2026. The number of passengers on the line in 2023 is 75,000 passengers, while it is not There are only five round trips and the TER does not stop at all stations.
Long-term objective: fourteen daily round trips.
75,000 is the ridership figure for the TER line on the right bank of the Rhône in 2023. “And this when there are only five round trips per day at the moment. Its usefulness no longer needs to be demonstrated.” The objective for Jean-Luc Gibelin, vice-president who is responsible for the Occitanie Region, is fourteen round trips daily.
The general assembly of the TER-SNCF users’ association on the right bank took place Friday evening at the Maison desentreprises in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, in the presence of around thirty people, including Hervé Rouquette, deputy of the new mayor of Pont-Saint-Esprit. The association to which the population owes the partial reopening of the line in August 2022 has had a busy year. It will continue to organize meetings for the population, particularly in municipalities where stations are due to reopen (i.e. Laudun-l’Ardoise, Roquemaure, Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, Aramon, Remoulins and Marguerittes). That of Villeneuve, end of March“was a big success. Everyone appreciated our information work. There is a lot of waiting around Villeneuve-lès-Avignon”summarized President Pascal Rousson, a retired railway worker involved in this association since its creation in 2009. The next public meeting will take place in Remoulins on September 21.
Communities in “the starting blocks” but… on the exemption, the State does not respond
Regarding the timetable for the full opening of the line, concerns remain. “We don’t have it.” Announced and hoped for at the start of 2026, the horizon is getting darker. “The SNCF is talking about 2027 or 2028, it’s very problematic.” Dissatisfaction of the audience. “This is explained by environmental and safety studies. The problem is that the local authorities, communes and urban areas which are responsible for the work of the Multimodal Exchange Hubs (PEM), need a timetable to prepare the budgets for the following year. In Villeneuve for example, there are no problematic level crossings and the environmental issues are less. This site will be less waterproofed at the end of the work than today, hence our. request for exemption on environmental studies (which will be respected) so that studies on the work can begin.” Especially, adds Pascal Rousson, that “the Avignon metropolitan area is getting caught and paying fines because the dioxide level is too high, the train could improve the situation“.
On this request for exemption“the State does not respond to us. With the Occitanie Region, we remain on the objective of complete reopening for the beginning of 2026. We, with the communities, are in the starting blocks for the construction of the PEM”, explains Lance Élisabeth Viola, vice-president of the association and deputy mayor of Remoulins. But “we cannot start the first shovel without the environmental study”.
Open letter to the prefect, to elected officials, to the economic, trade union and tourist worlds…
Faced with this situation, the members of the association are aware that they will have to work harder: “Develop our communication.” Jean Tournecuillert from Nîmes, railway worker and linchpin of the association, shares: “We have no guarantee. The work on the right bank began in 2016. After the partial opening, the environmental authority suddenly decided to carry out an investigation. Alone, we will not succeed. We need the population and the politicians, massively.” Approval from the room. At the start of the school year, the members of the association will write an open letter to the prefect, associations, unions, businesses, tourism stakeholders, and municipalities. Parallel mission: meet with town halls to relaunch memberships. Their number decreased with the Covid period, there were 62 members in 2023.
In Bagnols-sur-Cèze, a brand new waiting room
On the good news side… In Bagnols-sur-Cèze, work on the station is progressing well. “The facade has been renovated, the frames are new, there is now a waiting room worthy of the name, open from the first to the last shift.n” (except weekends). The passenger counter is brand new. The PEM is not finished, “there is a little delay”, but the inauguration should take place at the end of the year. In Pont-Saint-Esprit, the SNCF “hesitated for a long time between a footbridge and an underground passage”
For all stations on the line, the option chosen by SNCF is the installation of footbridges.
