The train, carrying fruit and Perpignan Mediterranean vegetables at the market in Rungis, will be relaunched on Friday by Prime Minister Jean Castex.
Le Monde with AFP
His return was confirmed by the Prime Minister in September. Mr. Castex will revive, Friday, October 22, the “train primeurs”, carrying fruit and Perpignan Mediterranean vegetables at the market in Rungis (Val-de-Marne) near Paris, after two years of interruption. The first train will leave from the St. Charles market in Perpignan to 16 h 28, to arrive at Rungis Saturday at 3 pm 8, in time to feed the belly of Paris.
This link, which enables the delivery wagons refrigerated fruits and vegetables in which we directly load pallets, was suspended in the summer of 2019, for lack of customers. Obsolete equipment – and hence concerns about the sustainability of the link – had then been widely questioned
Frédéric Delorme, President of Rail Logistics Europe (rail freight subsidiary of SNCF) says today:
“It was the harsh law of the market which applied and was very hard, because the road prices are unbeatable. The train was not subsidized.”
Trains half long
The new route takes the same principle, but with trains half as long. About 80 cars available to Ermewa (an owner of wagons, a subsidiary of the train), 34 have been retyped, allowing for convoy wagons each 12 – 12 with wagons mobilized in one direction, 12 into each other and 10 kept in reserve or maintenance.
These 12 cars will transport as much fruit and vegetables as 18 trucks, five times a week from November to July (during the primeurs season, especially from Spain and Morocco). They were all leased by the Primever charger, until the end of 2024. “In the judgment of the offer had to have customers who are committed,” said Mr. Delorme.
It’s Rail Logistics Europe was chosen, with a project also includes the creation of a “rolling motorway” – loading trailers and containers on trains – Boulou (Pyrénées-Orientales) to port Gennevilliers (Hauts-de-Seine), to be launched by the end of the year.
m. Castex explained shortly after arriving at Matignon he had been “bruised” by the suspension of the process of vegetables, that part of his chosen land. He is no stranger to the reopening of the line, for which the government launched in December a call for expressions of interest to find a buyer.
Ecological benefits
The advantage being that this additional connection can route more varied products, especially for retail, and load goods in the opposite north-south direction, unlike the primeurs train returns empty.
“It’s more expensive than road and that’s why we need a grant, but the environmental benefits justify this grant,” insists Mr. Delorme. It reaches 14 million over the term of the agreement until the end of 2024, according to Matignon.
The train of vegetables, which provide nearly 10% of the flow of fruits and vegetables absorbed Rungis, should not run beyond that date because the refrigerated cars will then be completely out of breath.
The idea is to move from 2025 a railway motorway from Barcelona to Antwerp who would stop at Perpignan and Rungis. An approved solution Cyril Gornes, director of market of St. Charles, for whom the combined truck-rail transportation with containers allows a better respect of the cold chain.
But it will take to do by then build a terminal in the Paris wholesale market, which is not currently adapted to unload containers or trucks. “An ambitious project” combined road-rail transportation facility can accommodate three trains per day is in the cards.
The CGT-Railwaymen, who was very mobilized for the train home early vegetables, has already celebrated his “victory” Thursday in Perpignan.
