A heavy user of glyphosate, the public company will opt for alternative but more expensive solutions.
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SNCF, which massively uses glyphosates, will opt for alternative solutions but more expensive and even presented as less effective to clean up its railway lines. The public company assures us that this solution should allow him to properly weed the tracks. The rail operator will no longer use glyphosate from next year, precisely in the spring, which is the period of revival of greenery and that of treatment. It is a security imperative every year.
SNCF was until now the largest user of glyphosate in France with a consumption of 35 to 38 tonnes per year of this product accused of causing cancer. Weeding is a safety requirement: vegetation retains water and constantly threatens to deform the platforms that accommodate the rails, not to mention the technological inconvenience: the tufts of grass cut the laser beams which check the correct gauge of the tracks. These are 30,000 km of lines over the entire network.
Instead of glyphosate, SNCF Réseau will use a product composed of more than 95% pelargonic acid, a bio-control product made up of natural substances and a synthetic molecule. New less efficient, more expensive and more viscous solution that requires shipping larger volumes. It will be used on the tracks but not on the surroundings that will have to be mowed in accordance with the recent Egalim Law which now governs trade relations in the agricultural and food sector.
Should travelers expect an impact on the price of tickets? No. The additional cost of maintenance linked to the release of glyphosate is estimated by SNCF at around one hundred million euros per year. A sum for the moment supported by the government stimulus plan.