Aurélien Fleurot 9:54 a.m., January 10, 2022

This is a new type of competition that SNCF will face in 2022: a cooperative.

The Railcoop project was born from the observation that there were too many abandoned railway lines and too many links systematically passing through Paris.

It will first be Bordeaux-Lyon at the end of 2022, before other line openings.

Two years after its creation, Railcoop ran its first train.

It was last November and it was freight, a freight train that ran between Figeac and Toulouse.

What, ultimately, when the service is running at full speed, replace 2,000 trucks.

The freight activity will develop, but Railcoop will also become an option for your train trips from 2022. A cooperative that includes more than 10,000 members, explains its president, Dominique Guerée.

"We are 10,600 individuals, legal entities, associations and communities to carry out this project which is a real challenge".

Railcoop is indeed the first railway company "created ex-nihilo to operate throughout France", specifies Dominique Guerée.

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Railcoop targets lines abandoned by SNCF

Competition is now real on French rails: Transdev will operate TER lines in the South region in 2025.

Trenitalia is now rolling its "Frecciarossa" between Paris and Lyon, head-on competition at high speed.

For its part, Railcoop is rather aiming to cover the lines abandoned by the SNCF, as Dominique Guerrée explains: "We are going to make transverse links, without going through Paris. This is the meaning and the communities have understood it since ' many of them come to the Railcoop membership ". 

After Bordeaux-Lyon, eight new lines in the pipeline

One year after freight, this will therefore be the first commercial journey.

More precisely, on December 11 between Bordeaux and Lyon.

There will be two round trips per day, which will pass through Périgueux, Limoges, Montluçon, Roanne before the terminus in Lyon, in around seven hours and 30 minutes.

Railcoop announces 13 spaces for bicycles per train, spaces for children and cabins for travelers wishing to isolate themselves to work.

For the moment, Railcoop has bought old TER trains.

And the outlook is good: the Transport Regulatory Authority has just granted the cooperative the right to look into eight new lines, such as Nantes-Lille or Toulouse-Caen.