Some dream of seeing it succeed quickly.
“From the start of 2021, we will mobilize the region and the SNCF to work on an express network in our metropolis” : the sentence is signed by the mayor of Tours Emmanuel Denis on Tuesday, December 29, on his Facebook page. The elected ecologist then commented on the front page of the newspaper Release devoted to the possible return of the night train… barely a few years after its disgrace (closing lines one after the other, because they were deemed unprofitable).
While the route of the second tram line in the Touraine agglomeration has just been defined, the mayor therefore wishes to go even further. In this he joined the ADTT, association for the development of public transport in Touraine.
In its last letter distributed at the end of 2020, the structure delivers a plea for an extended TER network in the great agglomeration of Tours. In other words, more trains and more stops than today. “The ADTT felt that it was necessary to relaunch the improvement of the Touraine railway star, using its exceptional density (8 branches, ie as much as Lyon and more than Toulouse (6 branches) by adopting the following objectives: helping to relieve traffic congestion in cities; improve passenger service to the metropolitan area; enable better regional relations by rail by linking Tours to neighboring towns. “
The idea would therefore be to create a “metropolitan RER”, inspired by the famous Parisian RER. “We can thus list as potential terminuses: Saint Antoine du Rocher, Monnaie, Amboise, Bléré-La Croix, Cormery, Sainte Maure-Noyant, Azay-le-Rideau, Langeais” pleads the ADTT which speaks about it for three decades and feels its time come with a better political listening. It would be a kind of shuttle “As already exists for Bléré-La Croix. “
To carry out this project, and ensure good attendance, the association suggests the reopening of closed stations such as Fondettes or new stations at the Carrefour de Verdun in Tours. Stations at La Riche, La Ville-aux-Dames, Vouvray, Dierre, Vernou, Mettray-Tours North or Mettray ville could help to densify the network. “The star would allow travel times of incomparable speed. The shuttles could provide direct connections from the outskirts to the outskirts (for example from Mettray to La Ville aux Dames), also allowing Mainline and TGV connections ”We still read in the text in favor of the project arguing as a bonus for an improvement of links to Loches, Chinon or Blois.
These projects come up against several obstacles: the idea of creating a railway stop in Verdun has already been put forward for many years… without any concrete progress. Until now, the SNCF has never shown much voluntarism for railway development projects, for example slowing down 4 irons for any project to relaunch a Tours / Saint-Pierre-des-Corps shuttle (because not enough passengers according to her). The use of such an urban RER will be one of the keys, whereas today the TER network transports as many people throughout the region as line A of our tram in 24 hours. Funding will also have to be found (track works, purchase of trains, staff, additional maintenance). A project not impossible but necessarily long to set up.
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