Sotteville-lès-Rouen (AFP)
On a former yard in Sotteville-lès-Rouen (Seine-Maritime), dozens of old TGVs, regional trains, freight cars and locomotives rust nicely after being scrapped.
But the SNCF does not want to hear any more speak of "railway cemetery", this material having to be recycled.
Over hundreds of meters, these tagged relics are ranged on sidings overgrown with weeds, a sort of informal museum that is a little melancholy.
"In 2018, there were 550 locomotives in Sotteville. Today, there are around sixty left," notes Alain Maucourt, responsible for dismantling canceled equipment.
"It's no longer a locomotive graveyard as it has been called for years, but it's a material sorting site," he insists.
Old trains stored at the technicentre of Rouen Quatre-Mares, September 13, 2021 in Sotteville-lès-Rouen Lou BENOIST AFP
We will not go to see the locomotives that survived this agglomeration which was a bit too reminiscent of the rail freight debacle.
The hike would be too long, the site is huge.
It would be necessary to bypass the ex-train 13 of the TGV, the TER from Rhône-Alpes or Lower Normandy, the Z6400 Ile-de-France (a series that disappeared last November), a gaggle of Corail cars ...
“Currently, we have nearly 400 components” (cars, wagons, power units, locomotives, etc.), calculates Jérémie Pigeaud, the director of the Rouen Quatre-Mares technicenter on which this somewhat particular car park depends.
"It lives every day" with arrivals and departures, he explains with a smile.
To the delight of enthusiasts who can say goodbye, from the bridge spanning the yard, to all this material withdrawn from circulation after forty years.
Others have less qualms, who regularly visit the oars to steal metals.
Jérémie Pigeaud, director of the Rouen Quatre-Mares technicenter, September 13, 2021 in Sotteville-lès-Rouen LOU BENOIST AFP
Some cars will be recovered by the SNCF to be retyped and reused, such as Corail abandoned by the regions.
But Sotteville is for the most part the last stage before leaving for the scrapyard.
“Of course, before sending our trainsets to be dismantled, we recover all the components that can be reused on other trainsets,” observes equipment manager Xavier Ouin.
- Expensive asbestos removal -
Old trains stored at the Rouen Quatre-Mares technicenter, September 13, 2021 in Sotteville-lès-Rouen LOU BENOIST AFP
"We can recover electronic parts, interior fittings, air conditioning components ... That gives us spare parts!"
The rest goes to specialized companies, often with a prerequisite: the removal of asbestos from wrecks.
“There was a lot of asbestos in trains until the late 1990s,” generally in floors, ceilings and walls, says Ouin.
"Now it is forbidden."
"As long as you don't touch it, it's absolutely not a problem," he reassures.
"But if we want to recover the scrap, there is stripping to be done and it is done in specialized facilities."
It is then possible to recover 92 to 95% of the material sent for dismantling, and up to 98% on the locomotives, explains Alain Maucourt.
Scrap metal, of course, but also copper, plastics, glass ...
The interior of an old train stored at the technicenter of Rouen Quatre-Mares, September 13, 2021 in Sotteville-lès-Rouen LOU BENOIST AFP
"If we dismantle 1,000 boxes per year, which is the case today, that represents about 60,000 tonnes of steel," he notes.
Enough to recast around 1,000 km of rails.
The product of recovered materials does not cover the cost of asbestos removal, recognizes Xavier Ouin.
"As we own the equipment, we are responsible for the disposal of the waste until the end," he says.
A European regulation prohibiting the sale, donation, rent or loan of asbestos railway equipment, the SNCF is condemned to use its trains or "to dismantle them properly".
With an advantage in passing: they cannot be reused by potential competitors.
To empty its yards which, like in Sotteville, became railway cemeteries, the public group embarked on the major recycling of its old trains in 2014. It has since increased calls for tenders to find specialized manufacturers, respectful of regulations.
An old train stored in Sotteville-lès-Rouen on September 13, 2021 LOU BENOIST AFP
If the first experiences were not very happy, a whole industry has now set to work and "prices have been divided by two or three since 2015".
The objective is to free the sidings "in about five years", underlines the director of equipment.
© 2021 AFP