Municipalities in Puy-de-Dôme would like to be connected to the TER train network, in order to offer an alternative to all-car. But it is not that simple. Examples in Thuret and Chanat-la-Mouteyre.
While the Clermont metropolis is in the process of transforming to develop carbon-free transport, will the small peripheral communities stay away from the big change? This is basically the question raised by the mobilization of elected officials so that their municipalities can regain rail service.
This is the case, for example, of Thuret (1,000 inhabitants), located halfway between Clermont and Vichy. For more than fifty years, regional trains have no longer stopped there. The station was reserved for freight, for the transport of tobacco grown in Limagne, until 2019. In 2022, the municipality bought the station and an adjoining warehouse from the Périgord Tabac company for €90,000. Since then, Mayor Pierre Lyan and his team have sought to “bring some life back” to this wasteland. And they have started the process for a railway stop to be set up.
