A new measure to help the French make ends meet. The SNCF will set up discounts “for all users” this summer on Intercités trains, and the State plans to launch in the coming months, with the regions, a “pass”, a cheap single ticket, covering Intercités and TER, announced this Sunday, June 25, the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune.
“In the coming days, I will announce a number of pricing measures, reductions in particular on Intercity trains which are directly under my ministry, they will be for all users”, declared the minister, questioned during the “Grand Jury RTL -Le Figaro-LCI”. “It will be extremely simple and extremely powerful,” he promised.
An attractive pass
SNCF’s Intercités trains, which are not high-speed, serve routes such as Paris-Limoges, Paris-Clermont-Ferrand or Bordeaux-Marseille. They carry “12 million passengers” every year, according to the minister.
Five billion euros investments have been announced to renovate the rolling stock of these lines, recalled Clément Beaune. Some suffer from chronic delays and technical problems.
In addition, “I think we must move towards a pass that is attractive on all daily trains, Intercity and TER” (local services funded by the regions, editor’s note), he added.
The 1 euro train in Occitania
The Minister welcomed the efforts already made by certain regions, such as Occitania which launched “the 1 euro train” for young people, and PACA which set up a “package at 90 euros for unlimited train for students all year”.
“We must sit around the table with the regions which are already making great efforts, the State which can also do so, to define in the coming months a simple pass, a cheap single ticket”, he judged. .
Regarding the other major railway projects, the Roissy-Picardie line project “will be done”, he assured. “We had asked for a grant from Europe, we did not obtain it this time. (…) these are regular calls for projects, we will try our luck again together with the region”, he said. -he says.
Support for the Lyon-Turin project
Clément Beaune also recalled his attachment to the Lyon-Turin project, contested by certain ecologists and elected leftists.
“It is a project which we hold dear, which will be financed”, affirmed the minister, recalling that the leader of rebellious France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who finds it today “monstrous”, supported it “ with great enthusiasm 20 years ago” when he was a minister in the Jospin government.
The Lyon-Turin “will make it possible to remove 1 million trucks from our roads and the pollution that goes with it”, noted Clément Beaune.