the essential
Although popular with travelers, more than a hundred night trains may not reach Latour-de-Carol in 2025.
Ecological, economical and practical, the night train has everything to appeal to travelers. If the famous “Occitan” or even “Le Pyrénées”, the one which connects Paris to Latour-de-Carol, have experienced a real comeback, they would be threatened again while train ticket reservations for Christmas are on the market. point of opening. According to the “Yes to the night train” collective, in 2025, the Paris – Toulouse night train timetable will be degraded for a good part of the year.
“It will normally run only on weekends (three nights per week) as well as every night from June to September. The rest of the time, i.e. 126 nights in the year, the train will leave Toulouse at 7:43 p.m. instead of 10:16 p.m. and will arrive in Toulouse at 7:44 a.m. instead of 6:30 a.m. On these days, it will not have traffic slots to fit into TER traffic and will therefore not run between Toulouse and Latour-de -Carol”, explains the collective. The reason: concurrent works which disrupt the two routes taken by this night train, via Limoges or via Bordeaux, some of which are planned until 2032.
Increase in attendance
For Maryse, a fan of the night train from Fux, this is bad news. “Night trains are the first to jump at the slightest problem, yet we are told all day long that it is much better than the plane. Last week, I had to go back to my home in the north to return visit my parents and I hesitated between the train and the plane. I could leave by night train on Monday or Tuesday evening, except that I did not have a return on Friday evening or Saturday evening. says the thirty-year-old.
As a reminder, with an average occupancy rate of 73% in 2022, Paris – Latour-de-Carol saw an increase of 28% compared to 2019 and + 44% for Paris – Foix. “It’s very practical to travel at night, plus you can pick it up directly in Foix, no need to go all the way to Toulouse. The only downside is that it would have to work, knowing that sometimes it can be canceled the day before…”, continues Maryse.
Furthermore, the collective points out that bypass routes exist and would benefit from being used more. “The Ministry of Transport has studied four alternative routes, in particular via Périgueux or via Poitiers – Limoges. The best alternative would even be to carry out the work on a single lane to maintain traffic on the adjoining lane, a practice which is already currently deployed on a small scale”, concludes the collective.
