It was to be quite a symbol: the return of night trains that are both ecological and economical. Launched on December 12, the one that connects Lourdes to Paris has experienced several failures. A few weeks before the elections, the debate is taking a political turn.
The Paris-Lourdes night Intercity returned to service on December 12, 2021 has not completely succeeded in its comeback. The return of night trains, launched against a background of political displays (Jean-Castex on the Paris-Nice line in May, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari inaugurating the Paris-Lourdes train) experienced a few failures at ignition.
Like this student lawyer who had to leave the train at 5am in Toulouse, several users were victims of the procrastination of the night train. Because now, the night train formerly called “The blue pigeon” on this line passed through Bordeaux and not through Toulouse as currently. On December 20, 2021, Camille Hervé found herself stranded in Toulouse, far from Paris. “The train left Paris Austerlitz at 9:15 p.m.. At 9:25 p.m., the controller spoke to tell us that he would stop at Toulouse. He did not indicate the time of arrival in Toulouse. Passengers could not determine this time by themselves, given that the Intercité de nuit does not in principle stop in Toulouse, but only in Aubrais, Tarbes and then Lourdes.“
The misadventure of this future lawyer has earned a lot of media hype. This did not prevent other malfunctions of the one which is now called “Le Pyrénéen”, both in the Lourdes-Paris direction and in the other. The SNCF recognizes the facts and tries to explain them by epiphenomena linked to frost.
The next world obliges, greener, slower, responding to the balance of the territories, the return of night trains has allowed the government to display a political display.
Quite naturally today, the local elected officials of the Hautes-Pyrénées place the problems encountered on the same ground. Like Jeanine Dubié, PRG MP for the 2nd constituency. “I can hear that the health situation has impacted these malfunctions, but in these cases we warn people, we organize ourselves. That was not the case. I ask the SNCF to demonstrate that it is not a political display by putting in the means necessary for the Pyrenean to work.”
While it was a question of the return of the night trains, several parliamentarians from the Hautes-Pyrénées and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques had written to the Prime Minister last May to express their dissatisfaction with the route passing through Toulouse and no longer skirting the Atlantic coast.
The failed debut of the night train in these first weeks gave them an opportunity to return to the charge. MP Jeanine Dubié intends to question the government on this subject at the National Assembly very soon.