The “primeurs train” between Rungis and Perpignan will restart in October – Le Monde

His return was announced but was delayed. Prime Minister Jean Castex and Minister of Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari confirmed, Monday, September 20, during a trip to Limoges on the recovery plan, the imminent reopening of the Rungis-Perpignan rail freight line.

This link, nicknamed the “early bird train”, allows the transport of fruit and vegetables in refrigerated wagons. Stopped since summer 2019, it should resume at “Mid-October”, said to Agence France-Presse (AFP) the entourage of the minister.

This reopening is part of the government plan of 1 billion euros by 2024 for the development of rail freight. “We will present the 2022 finance law where we will announce the extension of a certain number of aid for freight”, added Jean Castex, after the announcement last week of the sustainability of annual aid for rail freight of 170 million euros.

Coming to praise the recovery plan, the head of government stressed that “Half of the 100 billion euros planned” had already been engaged and that the objective was “To be at 70% by the end of 2021”. “We have illustrated here the rail component of this recovery plan, which is an extremely active component for freight, for [le retour] night trains, for the reopening or safeguarding of small lines and for opening up cities such as Limoges ”, developed Jean Castex.

A link suspended for lack of customers

In December 2020, the government launched a call for expressions of interest for the resumption – then expected for the summer of 2021 – of the “Primeurs train”.

“The health crisis has underlined the absolute necessity of having fast, efficient and sustainable food supply circuits”, had then put forward the Ministry of Transport. The link had been suspended for lack of customers, the dilapidated condition of the wagons then being widely mentioned.

This line connects the Saint-Charles International platform in Perpignan, the leading fruit and vegetable marketing, transport and logistics center in Europe, to the Rungis market (Val-de-Marne), presented as the largest for fresh produce. in the world. It represents the equivalent of“Traffic of around 9,000 trucks per year”, according to the ministry.

Five weekly connections from November to July

A combined transport solution (loading trucks or truck boxes onto trains) had been envisaged at the end of 2019 between Perpignan and the multimodal platform of Valenton (Val-de-Marne), located a few kilometers from Rungis, but it does not was not implemented, in particular because carriers could not find the timetables convenient.

“The announcement of the circulation of the Perpignan-Rungis train on October 18 has been confirmed to us for several months”, noted the secretary general of the CGT-Cheminots, Laurent Brun, to AFP. This one criticizes nevertheless “The logic of calls for tenders and competition” considered as “An obstacle to the development of public rail service”.

Rail Logistics Europe (RLE), which brings together Fret SNCF and the other European freight subsidiaries of SNCF, was the winner of the call for expressions of interest. Its offer will combine early bird train and container transport on the rail motorway along the Le Boulou (Pyrénées-Orientales) -Gennevilliers (Hauts-de-Seine) axis, the transport ministry said.

The Perpignan-Rungis will be made up of twelve wagons and will run from November to mid-July at the rate of five weekly connections.