The SNCF intends to reopen the Parthenay station in 2025. Closed since the fall of 2023 due to an increased presence of radon linked, among other things, to its underactivity, the station must host work at the beginning of 2025 for its ventilation in particular.
Around €100,000 of work planned by the SNCF
“We have carried out the diagnostics and expertise to define the work to be carried out at Parthenay station. The work is estimated at around 100,000 euros. This involves, among other things, carrying out floor waterproofing work, installing an air handling unit and installing an air extractor in the cellar,” confirms the SNCF regional management of Nouvelle-Aquitaine stations. To add: « We are currently working on planning them for early 2025, the dates have not been set at this stage because they depend on the companies' workload schedule. »
The horizon without TER… but candidates for light rail
Closed to passenger rail traffic when the winter grid was put in place on September 27, 1980, Parthenay station, which had been put into service in 1882, was no more than an automatic teller machine for user reservations. who, due to a lack of trains, use regional bus services (1).
But with the work to modernize the track for the reopening of the freight line between Parthenay and Saint-Varent in the second half of 2023, after five years of construction, the entire Niort-Thouars freight line was made operational again so that it had been closed since 2015. In fact, freight trains returned to this major crossing of Deux-Sèvres via Parthenay, at the end of 2023.
This return to service could legitimately arouse hope among travelers. Will Parthenay station resume service on Regional Express Transport (TER)? No false hopes in the short term: “To date, there are no plans to reopen the Thouars-Niort line via Parthenay to travelers, the investments of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region in the railway network – outside of competences – being concentrated in the coming years on the regeneration of the Niort lines -Saintes and Poitiers-Limoges”, we respond clearly from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region. However, the mayor of Parthenay intends to apply for the experimentation of the new innovative light train Telli (read below).
Major bus modal node in 2025
In the meantime, the Town of Parthenay has moved forward on its Pybus. Its free minibus service, which was launched in 1992, will experience a small revolution in 2025. With the doubling announced effective for January 2025 of its bus lines by electric vehicles with fifty-two seats on a service outsourced to the Parthenaisian private service provider. Atlantic Alliance, Parthenay has a real urban transport network.
However, among the places where these two north-south and east-west lines will intersect, the surroundings of the SNCF station are clearly identified as a new platform which will take into account the connection times. Here Pybus, departmental and regional buses will meet. “Parthenay constitutes the second modal node of Deux-Sèvres in terms of passenger flows and the station center has a big role to play”, supports Mayor Jean-Michel Prieur. The City is already planning a special development with a bus shelter.
Between the new municipal police station inaugurated in 2021 and, on the other side, the bowling project on the rails within a vast leisure hub planned for 2026 in the former Gamm Vert silos on Boulevard Quinet, it is clear that the Parthenay station hub will have changed track in the space of five years.
(1) While waiting for the return of the SNCF station ticket office, users can still reserve their tickets at the tobacco bar Le Michelet, 94, rue du Bourg-Belais in Parthenay.
Parthenay candidate for innovative light rail
No TER on the horizon in Parthenay, announces the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region (read above). But Parthenay already has another idea in mind… quite a bit ahead of it.
“After the freight line is brought back into service, Parthenay will have its card to play in the not-so-distant future with the new “agile” light passenger trains, in connection with Thouars, Saumur and Niort to allow our rural territories to have access to the TGV by train. I intend to request a meeting with Bernard Paineau [maire de Thouars] and Jérôme Baloge [maire de Niort] so that we can achieve a joint application from our cities for this experiment,” confides Jean-Michel Prieur, mayor of Parthenay.
The Region is in fact carrying out a unique experiment in France on the future generation of trains, within the project called Telli, this innovative light train. The idea of this future generation of trains is to provide fine services to rural areas to revitalize small rail lines.
With costs under control, the Telli project co-financed by the State as part of the France Relance 2030 program represents a “major challenge” according to the Region: “It involves developing the next generation of trains adapted to regional lines not electrified. Of the 3,410 km of lines that make up the railway network in New Aquitaine, only 36% are electrified. The future innovative light rail must also meet the objectives of decarbonization of transport, and provide ever more services to users,” the Region believes.
