Dince the closure of Marans station to passengers and freight in the 1980s, there has been regular talk of putting it back into service. In 2023 and again in 2024, a deliberation by the Region on this possibility was expected. Without result. Same observation for the entire RER project (regional express network) in Aunis which seems to be in complete stagnation. This summer, three days of citizen mobilization were organized in the department, without repercussions on the blocking of the project.
Pierre Rivaud – president of the Capres-Aunis association – campaigns among others in favor of this RER between Marans and Tonnay-Charente, which would pass through Dompierre, Châtelaillon, Aytré, Yves, La Pallice, La Jarne and even Surgères. This RER could fall within the SERM (Metropolitan Regional Express Services) law passed in 2023 which provides for the development within ten years of 10 RER-type networks in large French cities.
In the department, this would mainly involve renovating stations and tracks that have been unused for several decades. “But nothing was done,” regrets Pierre Rivaud. No plan, no funding, no consultation, no meeting…” And it will soon be too late to hope to be among the 10 RER projects regulated by the SERM law. “In the immediate future, the different urban communities should submit a file together to the Region,” said the president of Capres. But none of them seem to want to move…”
The TER rather than the RER?
For the mayor of La Rochelle and president of the CdA Jean-François Fountaine, “anything that allows us to use the train more goes in the right direction” but he prefers to remain cautious on a project as large as a RER and the reopening of as many stations and railway tracks. “I’m afraid it will take dozens and dozens of years,” he assumes.
Instead, he prefers to focus on intensifying what already exists. “It’s true that we must start by increasing the capacity of the current TER (regional express trains), as well as the speeds, as on the Niort – La Rochelle axis where the trains are very often crowded,” admits the elected official. , even if it depends more on the Region than on its own will. The same goes for the bus network which is sometimes saturated.
Concerning the attached white paper on the metropolitan TER unanimously approved on March 9, 2023 in the community council, Jean-François Fountaine confirms that the latter is still “current”. It provides for the “development of a timed offer” in the branches around La Rochelle: towards Niort, Poitiers, Nantes, Thouars, Rochefort and Bordeaux, without a binding timetable.
But Pierre Rivaud assures that an RER project is preferable. “This would make it possible to transport many more people, to serve many more cities, to have greater time ranges and a higher rate… All while being more eco-friendly…” he says. It's going to be complicated.
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