Considered necessary or exaggerated, the measures taken on the rail network due to storm Floriane are not unanimous. This Monday, January 6, traffic on the POLT line was interrupted until 4 p.m. by the SNCF, some TER trains were still canceled at the end of the day. Users, railway workers and elected officials denounce the lack of maintenance of the vegetation around the tracks.
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“Do you see a storm? I think they are too careful“. At Limoges station, this Monday, January 6, some travelers are quite annoyed by this new episode of disruption to rail traffic.
Due to storm Floriane, the SNCF has implemented traffic restrictions. Météo France having predicted gusts between 70 and 110 km/h, no direct train ran before 4 p.m., on the Paris-Orléans-Limoges-Toulouse line in particular, as a precautionary principle.
“This is the new network strategy, stopping traffic as soon as there is a strong weather alert. We are the first to deplore it because we are still there to run trains, comments Benoît Le matelot, CGT SNCF delegate. Weather alerts, with climate change, there are more and more of them, and we will end up having a traffic stop every two weeks or three weeks, which makes no sense“, he continues.
Railway workers, elected officials and passengers all agree on one point: the maintenance of the edges of the tracks is failing. “The state of the railway network is not on certain tracks as it should be so there is certainly caution to be exercised, I find it rather reassuring that there are precautionary measures being taken“, recognizes this user, who came to accompany his wife to Limoges station.
For the CGT union representative of the railway workers, these are strategic choices made ten years ago which have led to this situation: “We have vegetation and trees that can fall on the tracks. At one time, we managed to maintain this vegetation and keep the trains running. Today, this is no longer the case due to lack of personnel and financial resources.“, he denounces.
Vice-president of the Urgence Polt association, the mayor of Limoges, Emile-Roger Lombertie, believes that this episode demonstrates “the state of disorganization and disintegration of the public rail service“. According to him, all trains should be able to run whatever the weather: “It is up to the SNCF and the State to ensure that everything is in working order and works whatever the weather.“
At the end of the day, some disruptions remained at Limoges station : the TER at 6:10 p.m. for Montluçon and that at 8:33 p.m. for Guéret are canceled.
