The elected officials of Puy-de-Dôme, Haute-Loire, Cantal, Allier, Nièvre and Cher and, more generally, the users of the Clermont-Ferrand-Nevers-Paris train did not take long to contact the new government. Already on September 19, the La France insoumise deputy for the first constituency of Puy-de-Dôme, Marianne Maximi, alerted the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, along with six other parliamentarians of the New Popular Front, about “the urgency to act” for this line.
On September 22, it was Delphine Lingemann, MoDem deputy for the fourth constituency of Puy-de-Dôme, who sent a letter, co-signed by twenty-six parliamentarians from across the political spectrum, to the newly appointed transport minister, François Durovray, to also point out “the problematic situation” of this Interurban. Then, the very active spokesperson for the Clermont-Ferrand-Nevers-Paris train users’ collective, Stéphanie Picard, took her turn to write to find out the intentions of the new government.
If mobilization is important it is because the issue is painful. On this 419-kilometer line, which handles more than 1.8 million passengers per year, travel time increases over the years. It takes just over three hours on the only daily non-stop round trip and about three and a half hours on the others. Above all, trains suffer repeated delays, often exceeding one hour or even three hours.
Lack of reliability
This lack of reliability “constitutes the main obstacle to the development of the Clermont-Ferrand conurbation and much beyond,” says Patrick Wolff, president of the Objectif capitals association created in 2018 in response “endemic problems” of the line, and which today brings together a hundred members, including Clermont Auvergne Métropole, the department of Puy-de-Dôme, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the University of Clermont Auvergne and companies such as Michelin, whose headquarters are located in Clermont. -Ferrando. “This train line is a lifeline for the metropolis, but users are often forced to leave the day before to be sure to keep their Parisian, professional or private appointments. It’s serious”adds Claude Barbin, president of the Puy-de-Dôme Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The cause is the obsolescence of the network, whose modernization work has been constantly postponed due to the unfulfilled promise of the creation of a high-speed line, and of the Corail locomotives and wagons, which are more than 40 years old.
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