Among other decisions, community elected officials, Monday June 24, 2024, voted for the creation of an express bus line between Niort and La Rochelle. This line must “offer a complementary offer to the existing TER offer” in particular by connecting the outskirts of the two cities, in accordance with the TER white paper adopted by the agglomeration in 2023. Six round trips are planned from Monday to Friday, during peak hours. This should make it possible, in particular, to compete with individual cars: 3,000 “commuting journeys” are made every day on the Niort-La Rochelle axis.
A trip for €2.50
With an estimated cost of €882,000 per year, Niort agglo should finance the project to the tune of €108,000 (€180,000 for La Rochelle, €72,000 for the Aunis Atlantique community of communes, the project benefiting from regional subsidies of up to 40% ). Commissioning is planned for September 2, 2024, for a two-year experiment. A single journey will cost €2.50. Operations will be managed by Keolis, on behalf of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, which is responsible for intercity transport.
Noting the absence of a stop at Frontenay-Rohan-Rohan, which is also not served by rail, opposition councilor François Gibert (Niort new energy) also mentioned the arrival in Niort “where there are traffic jams early in the morning. The bus will end up in the same traffic jams, it will be an obstacle.” He submitted the idea of creating a lane reserved for public transport in parallel. “This experiment is a request from our neighboring friends”responded the president of the agglomeration, Jérôme Baloge, who notes that he “It’s also difficult to get to La Rochelle. For the moment, it’s a test, it’s not necessarily sustainable, especially since it has a cost.” The impact on the flow of cars will be studied in particular, he says.
