The SNCF reverses the schedules of the only high-speed line linking Normandy and the West of Ile-de-France to the Mediterranean. A siding?
By Thierry Vigoreux
© Richard Villalon / MAXPPP / BELPRESS/MAXPPP
Published on
Link copied
Copy link
Qhe wants to drown his dog accuses him of rabies! This proverb applies to the SNCF when a change of schedule, scheduled for December, probably condemns the only direct train Le Havre-Marseille, which also irrigates Lyon and Avignon from Normandy. The current schedule – departure from Le Havre at 7:49 a.m., arrival in Marseille at 2:23 p.m., return at 3:36 p.m. with arrival in Le Havre at 10:05 p.m. – will be reversed, which would be very unfavorable to travelers from Normandy. Not only, because this TGV, bypassing the Paris region, serves Mantes, Versailles and Massy before joining the southeast high-speed line.
Le Havre-Marseille, one of the longest diagonals of the French TGV, connects the two major maritime ports of France, which generates many business trips on an axis where the plane is absent. With this change, “we don’t want fewer travelers to use the train. We will be vigilant to avoid that, in the long term, the SNCF, for the sake of profitability, removes this train, ”warns Jean-Baptiste Gastinne, vice-president of the Normandy regional council, in charge of transport, received by France Bleu Normandie.
READ ALSOTrain, plane… How to travel cheaper
Night maintenance
This service, in fact, is not profitable, firstly for a geographical and technical reason. When the train spends the night in Le Havre, it cannot be received by the Technicentre, located in Marseille. TGV maintenance operations, numerous and regular to be able to travel at 320 km/h, are carried out at night. In the case of Le Havre-Marseille, this requires hiring a second train from time to time, the first being in daytime overhaul, which weighs down the line’s productivity.
“These new timetables are also more attractive for travelers going to Normandy at the weekend, allowing them to arrive in Le Havre or Rouen on Friday afternoon and leave on Sunday afternoon” , explains the SNCF, considering that the Seine valley and the beaches of the Channel are more attractive than those of the Mediterranean or the Rhône delta.
READ ALSOThis is what the TGV M will look like
Already, at the time of the Minitel, the SNCF had found a technique to close a service “gently”, without announcement, making local elected officials scream. The threatened train first disappeared from the pages of 3615 SNCF while continuing to circulate on the rails. But its attendance fell for lack of presence in the “pages” Minitel. In terms of profitability, the rail operator had no trouble stopping the service, at best replaced by a coach trip.