The SNCF footbridge at Sète station will not be in service before the end of August 2024

La passerelle SNCF de la gare de Sète ici en cours de construction. Illustration Midi Libre – NICOLAS ZARROUK

Les travaux de construction de la nouvelle passerelle de la gare SNCF de Sète sont entrés dans leur phase terminale. En revanche il faudra attendre encore un peu pour sa mise en service.

The new 71m long and four metres wide SNCF footbridge, equipped with its four lifts, is a small revolution for the Sète SNCF station. This equipment, which is particularly awaited by users, will bring the site into the modern era. It will allow travellers to move more easily from one platform to another, when they have to carry luggage weighing several kilos or pull a bicycle or a pushchair. This inter-district footbridge is also intended to cross the bundle of railway tracks to connect the southern forecourt and the northern forecourt.

Much awaited by people with reduced mobility

But the most problematic so far concerns people with reduced mobility. Only platform A is directly accessible to them, for the other platforms are served by an underground corridor, accessible only by stairs. For these people with disabilities, there is no other solution than to use a special but rather restrictive service. To benefit from it, it must be reserved when purchasing the ticket or at the latest 48 hours before, by telephone on 3635 or on the Oui.sncf website, before arriving at the station at least 30 minutes before the train departs.

Upgrading the underground passage

The work, which began in January 2023, is nearing completion. The underpass has also been brought up to standard. However, it is not yet time for it to be put into service. Announced for the end of July 2024 at the latest a few months ago, the communications department of the SNCF station and connection service now indicates that it will not be operational until “by the end of August”. Users will have to be patient. The equipment should be inaugurated in September.

This railway development, which cost 8 million euros, is part of a much larger project for a multimodal interchange hub (PEM). It involves part of the southern forecourt of the railway station, which has already been redeveloped with the bus station. And on the other hand, the creation, in a second phase to come, on the northern forecourt, of a short and long North duration, of a pedestrian path to the crossroads of the Balaruc road (RD2), of an access to the bus network of the future urban boulevard, also connected to an area that will host the arrival of the greenway from Mèze and Balaruc. Total envelope: 19.7 million euros.

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