The Railcoop railway cooperative will have to raise funds before being able to buy, then renovate, the eight trains necessary for its launch on the Bordeaux-Lyon line, for which it is no longer advancing a launch date, its leaders said Thursday.
Railcoop, a cooperative based in Figeac (Lot), has signed an agreement with SNCF Voyageurs and the Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes region to buy nine used railcars. It has currently acquired two, one of which is to be dismantled to supply spare parts for its future fleet, which have been transferred to the ACC M Clermont-Ferrand workshops.
The two trains will be examined in depth, so as to optimize their renovation.
Today, the continuation of the acquisition of the oars is guaranteed at the end of the financial round, explained the deputy general manager Alexandra Debaisieux, during a Clermont-Ferrand press briefing.
Negotiations are underway with banks. Some of them have given us agreements in principle, but we have to finalize everything, she added, saying she was hopeful that things would land quickly.
Railcoop will then be able to have ACC M renovate the eight trains needed to operate the Bordeaux-Lyon link. The further behind, the more the effective commissioning of the Bordeaux-Lyon link will be delayed.
First announced for June, then for December, the launch of the line has been postponed indefinitely.
Bank charges : up €259 savings thanks to our comparator
The challenge is to start the service as quickly as possible, underlined the general manager Nicolas Debaisieux, noting that the cooperative with 12,000 members had not benefited from any public subsidy.
The small company plans to offer two round trips a day between Bordeaux, Prigeux, Limoges, Montluon, Roanne and Lyon, in around 7.5 hours, resuscitating a cross-section abandoned by the SNCF in 2014.
The cooperative has also been running freight trains since last November between Viviez-Decazeville (Aveyron) and Saint-Jory (Haute-Garonne).