Since December 15, the first train officially operated by SNCF Voyageurs Sud Azur has been running on the Côte d’Azur. Thanks to this new offer, between Cannes and Menton, travelers benefit from an enhanced offer with a train every 15 minutes, extended timetables and modernized trains.
Philippe Tabarot Senator of the Alpes-Maritimes, Former Vice-President of the Region in charge of transport underlines that “it was the initial promise that we had imagined and worked on since 2019, with Christian Estrosi then with Renaud Muselier when I was responsible for transport in the Region: that of an electroshock, that of being the first in France to launch into opening up to competition on Regional Express Transport (TER) managed by the South Region, to have a real change. It is a real satisfaction to see the progress of the work carried out for the sole benefit of train users..”
This offer will soon be supplemented by stage 2 of the competition, that of the inter-metropolis offer (Nice-Toulon-Marseille) with double the number of trains from June 2025.
A train every 15 minutes
On the section between Cannes and Mentonthe central axis of this railway sector which is the busiest in France after the Paris region, there will be a train every 15 minutes in each direction during the week and on weekends. The objective is to offer extended opening hours, reduce waiting times and improve the flow of travel.
This train every 15 minutes between Cannes and Menton represents 20,000 additional places per dayfrom 5:45 a.m. to 10 p.m.
At the same time, the new offer allows travelers to extend Saturday evenings with a train until 2 a.m. In total, a team of 150 people serves passengers, in stations and on trains.
A new maintenance site in Nice
To provide even more flexibility, a new maintenance center is opening in Nice Saint-Roch. An investment of 62 million euros financed by the South Region, which guarantees reliability and proximity in the management of rolling stock.
Until now, rolling stock maintenance was carried out on the Blancarde site in Marseille, the maintenance of the trains will now be carried out entirely in Nice. The trains will therefore be maintained as close as possible to the line, which will allow for optimized organization of traffic.
For this, two years of work were necessary to completely rehabilitate the regional technical center of Nice Saint-Roch which can now accommodate the entire fleet of rolling stock dedicated to the Riviera sector.
A rise in power in the summer of 2025
In addition to the Riviera sector, the Marseille-Toulon-Nice axis was allocated to Transdev, with entry into service planned for summer 2025, with a doubling of trains (from 7 to 14 trains).
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