Objective 2023. "
Le Train
", a new private railway company born in Charente, wants to launch regional and interregional high-speed trains next year in the Great West, but it must by then buy and renovate TGVs from opportunity.
"
We are in the midst of the prefiguration phase of exploitation, in the midst of industrial and commercial construction
", enthuses its general manager Alain Getraud, in an interview with AFP.
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The Train wants to make better use of the new South Europe Atlantic line (Tours-Bordeaux) opened in 2017, which according to him is "
a superb infrastructure, but with a service deemed insufficient by the territories it crosses
".
The SNCF mainly runs Paris-Bordeaux trains there, which rarely stop en route.
The connections imagined by the young company must connect Arcachon, Bordeaux, Angoulême and Poitiers, then La Rochelle, Tours, Angers, Nantes and Rennes.
“
We don't serve Paris!
laughs this former SNCF Réseau executive, who came to present his young company at the public transport fair (EuMo Expo) this week in … Paris.
It provides "
50 trains per day
", with timetables allowing easy connections with the TER and affordable prices: "
a little more expensive than a TER ticket and less expensive than an Inoui ticket (the classic SNCF TGV, editor's note), about the same price as a Ouigo ticket (the low-cost TGV)
”, he promises.
With subscriptions and a loyalty program.
Among the new companies that want to take advantage of the opening up to competition to challenge the SNCF - or complete its offer, they like to say - the Railcoop cooperative has found trains, but lacks the money to get started quickly between Bordeaux and Lyons.
It's a bit the opposite for Le Train.
On the financial side, Alain Getraud has been confident since Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and Crédit Agricole entered the capital, “
to finance the operation and allow it to go as far as exploitation
”.
Discreet on the amount of fundraising, “
several million
”, he evokes “
a whole financial arsenal
” which will allow him in particular to buy trains.
Second-hand TGV, then new
The Train first wants to buy ten second-hand trains from the SNCF.
Undoubtedly single-level Atlantic TGVs, “
a little old
” and “
retrofitted
” equipment, not to say re-typed.
The task would be entrusted to Alstom or Masteris, a division of the SNCF.
It will also be necessary to solve security problems, to ensure that there is no asbestos problem, to consolidate the legal aspect, to ensure maintenance: “
These files take time to come up!
“Alain Getraud says he has”
an agreement in principle
“from the national company, with whom”
overall, relations are good
“.
He thinks he can start in the second half of 2023.
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Le Train, which moved to Bordeaux, would then employ 150 people – compared to about twenty currently.
Because it will be necessary to hire by then drivers and on-board personnel.
Such a start would be rather quick since the company was only created in February 2020 on the initiative of the Charente industrialist Tony Bonifaci, director in particular of the New Society of Public Works and Civil Engineering (SNGC).
In case he could not buy and retype his ten TGVs by then, Alain Getraud is considering a reduced "
plan B
", with only five trains.
A second phase of development planned for 2026
And even with ten second-hand TGVs, "
it won't be enough for the development
" of the company, he immediately rebounds.
"
We are in a sequence of consultation of the European market and acquisition of new equipment in addition
", he underlines, looking for "
a product that exists
" at Alstom, CAF, Hitachi Rail or Siemens.
A second phase of development is in the cards for 2026 with an increase in frequencies on the first links and extensions to Toulouse and the Basque Country.
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Le Train has a big appetite, according to its general manager.
"
We are looking at the calls for tenders for regional balance trains
", these Intercités that the State wants to open up to competition such as Bordeaux-Nantes via La Rochelle, a link that the young company also wants to complete and shorten by passing through Towers.
Possibly by associating with others.