Europe 1 with AFP 9:29 p.m., October 25, 2022

The government is upping its game on the subject of night trains.

During a hearing in the Senate, the Secretary of State in charge of Ecology, Bérangère Couillard, announced that she wanted to run night trains again between Paris, Bordeaux, Dax, Bayonne and Pau.

The state hopes to open the line to travelers as early as 2024.

The government intends to run a daily night train again from 2024 between Paris, Bordeaux, Dax, Bayonne, Orthez and Pau, said Tuesday the Secretary of State for Ecology, Bérangère Couillard.

Responding to the Senate to a question from Max Brisson (LR, Pyrénées-Atlantiques), Bérangère Couillard confirmed that a night train would again link Paris to Aurillac at the end of 2023.

Return of the "Blue Pigeon"

"From 2024, the night train will serve Dax, Bayonne, Orthez and Pau daily, in addition to Lourdes and Tarbes," she added.

This route via Bordeaux would resuscitate the "Palombe bleue", a nocturnal link abolished in 2011. The State reopened the Paris-Nice links in 2021, and Paris-Tarbes-Lourdes via Toulouse, this last line being extended in the summer until on the Basque coast.

It also financed the renovation of existing old cars on the Paris-Rodez/Latour-de-Carol/Cerbère and Paris-Briançon lines which had survived the elimination of almost all night trains.

“Decisions must soon be taken on the consistency of the future night train network, the renewal of rolling stock, the financing methods, with the prospect of opening up operations to competition within a few years”, added asserted Bérangère Couillard. 

No comments from the SNCF

In December 2021, the Minister Delegate for Transport at the time, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, announced the creation by 2030 of new lines linking Paris to Albi, Bayonne and San Sebastian to the Spanish Basque Country, Barcelona and also Toulouse, Montpellier and Marseilles.

He had added the transverse links Metz/Geneva-Nice/Barcelona/Bordeaux and Bordeaux-Nice.

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The night trains, which are part of the “territorial balance trains” (TET, more commonly called Intercités), are subsidized by the State and operated by the SNCF pending their competition.

She made no comment.