Perpignan (AFP)

Circulating empty since Monday, the freight train carrying primeurs from Perpignan to Rungis market, was suspended Wednesday, during the low season, and resume on November 1. But for the CGT, it is a "kill that is preparing" in favor of "25,000 trucks on the roads".

The possible disappearance, for the benefit of road transport, of this line linking the Saint-Charles International platform in Perpignan, the leading center for marketing, transport and fruit and vegetable logistics in Europe and the Rungis market (Val-de-Marne) , touted as the largest fresh produce market in the world, has been widely criticized, especially on the left and among environmentalists.

The temporary suspension of the railway line, announced Wednesday at a meeting of the ministerial steering committee at the Prefecture of Pyrénées-Orientales, takes place on the day of the transfer of powers to the Ministry of Ecological Transition between François de Rugy and Elisabeth Borne, who keeps his Transport portfolio.

"The vacuum link, as it has been done for three days, is not acceptable.It will stop today (Wednesday) until November 1", told AFP Jean-Luc Gibelin, vice President of the Occitan Region, in charge of Transport and participating in this meeting.

"From November 1 will start an affair between Saint-Charles and Rungis, as it was, but transiently, the time to find a lasting solution," he said. The refrigerated wagons are according to the SNCF at the end of the race.

- "A future" -

"A new steering committee will be held on September 11th, it will be open to mass distribution and the organic sector.There will be two technical meetings to work on issues such as the obsolescence of the wagons and their replacement" , according to him.

"Today, a step has been taken to confirm that it is legitimate and useful for this rail link to continue.This was a productive meeting," said the head of the Region, chaired by Carole Delga (PS ).

"The rail link between Perpignan and Rungis now has a future," said Minister Elisabeth Borne in a statement to AFP.

"The government could not bring the goods of Perpignan-Rungis from the rail to the road, everyone was put in front of the fait accompli at the announcement of the stop of this train which was planned end If I had not mobilized, this train would be stopped since the end of June, "she said.

"As we have just entered the low season where few goods need to be transported, the meeting (...) made it possible to obtain the commitment of the customers to take up a transitional railway solution as soon as the recovery of the season high on November 1st, "she said.

- "Absolute cynicism" -

Until July 15, many fruits and vegetables from Morocco and Spain, which benefit from sunshine more important and earlier than in France, transit through Perpignan. After this date, French production takes over.

"At the meeting of May 17 at the ministry (...), the SNCF was committed to [maintain] this train until the end of the high season and proposed that it be extended until the end of the year, the time that there is a sustainable rail solution that takes over, "added the minister.

But this government optimism is far from being shared by the Green MEP Yannick Jadot: "When Minister of Transport, [Mrs. Borne] pretends to defend the train of primeurs between Perpignan and Rungis, circulating it empty because? it refuses to invest in refrigerated wagons, while organizing with SNCF the transport of goods by 25,000 trucks per year, it is an absolute cynicism!

And for Thomas Portes, animator of the collective "Save the Perpignan-Rungis", trade unionist of the CGT-Cheminots and national manager of the railways to the PCF, "it is a killing that pronounces the new minister of the Ecology! the transfer of 25,000 trucks on the roads! " "From the beginning, we were right," he said on Twitter.

According to him, "There is the ecology of words and the ecology of acts".

© 2019 AFP