Global warming and droughts are damaging the forests of the Jura mountains. To dispose of this damaged wood, the small station at Andelot-en-Montagne (Jura) resonates every week with the noise of loadings and an exceptional railway convoy.
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636 meters above sea level, welcome to Andelot-en-montagne station in the Jura. The small station put into service in 1862 by the Paris to Lyon and Mediterranean Railway Company (PLM) is still served by regional trains, TER to reach Haut-Jura and Saint-Claude via the magnificent railway line. swallows.
Every Tuesday in the small town of 600 inhabitants, a ballet of around fifteen trucks heads towards the station. Freight trains are waiting to receive bark beetle logs, these small insects which ravage wood as soon as it is too hot or too dry. 30 tons of wood per wagon. 15 to 20 wagons per trip. All destination Tarascon, 500 km away, where the paper manufacturer Fiber Excellence will transform these woods into paper pulp. This special train is chartered by RégioRail which has eight agencies in France.
“This is not trivial for a village like ours of 600 inhabitants. We have lumber truck crossings. It is a constraint for the municipality” explains the mayor, Pascal Volpoët.
-The goal of the municipality is to bring the station to life. We need the transport of wood so that the wood can travel throughout France. With the bark beetle crisis, Franche-Comté wood is going to the southwest, the southeast and Italy.
Pascal Volpoët, mayor of Andelot-en-Montagne
This rail transport also relieves the wood industry. “Vu the extent of the drought, it has been going on for five years, professionals are overwhelmed with dry wood” argues the mayor of Andelot-en-Montagne. The elected official hopes that these piggyback solutions will last over time, because the bark beetle crisis is far from over.
The State must show its desire to develop this mode of transport.
Pascal Volpoët, mayor of Andelot-en-Montagne
Five million euros have been invested in recent months by SNCF Réseau to modernize the tracks at Andelot-en-Montagne station. Andelot-en-Montagne station is served by a single track. Each in turn, the convoy of wood is inserted between the passenger train movements. The same goes for when it arrives on the tracks of the Rhône valley where from the TGV, you may see these long convoys leaving from the hills of the Jura on the rails.
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