From Pont-Saint-Esprit to Nîmes, via Bagnols-sur-Cèze and Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, the TER users association is worried and wants to remobilize the population

The vice-presidents Marielle Yzerd and Elisabeth Viola (also elected in Remoulins), the retired railway worker president Pascal Rousson. C. C. – Midi Libre

A brand new passenger area open from the first to the last train from Monday to Friday, at Bagnols station.

Although it has fallen a little behind schedule, the work on the Bagnols station and the multimodal exchange hub is progressing well. CC.

The timetable for the complete reopening of the right bank passenger line has not been established, while the Region and the association were counting on 2026. Attendance on the line in 2023 is 75,000 passengers, while ;#39;there are only five round trips and the TER does not stop at all stations.
Long-term objective: fourteen daily round trips.

75,000, this is the ridership figure for the TER line on the right bank of the Rhône in 2023. "And this while&rsquo There are only five round trips per day at the moment. Its usefulness no longer needs to be demonstrated." The objective for Jean-Luc Gibelin, vice-president who is leading the file for the Occitanie Region, fourteen round trips daily.
The general assembly of the TER-SNCF users association of the right bank took place Friday evening at the Maison desentreprises in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, in the presence of around thirty people, including Hervé Rouquette, deputy to the new mayor of Pont-Saint-Esprit. The association to which the population owes the partial reopening of the line in August 2022 has had a busy year. It will continue to organize meetings for the population, particularly in the municipalities where stations are to reopen (i.e. Laudun-l’Ardoise, Roquemaure, Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, Aramon, Remoulins and Marguerittes). That of Villeneuve, at the end of March , was a big success. Everyone appreciated our information work. There is a lot of waiting around Villeneuve-lès-Avignon", summarized President Pascal Rousson, a retired railway worker involved in this association since its creation in 2009. The next public meeting will take place in Remoulins on September 21.

Communities in "the starting blocks" but… on the exemption, the State does not respond

On the timetable for the complete opening of the line, concerns remain. "We don't have it." Announced and hoped for at the beginning of 2026, the horizon is getting darker. "The SNCF mentions 2027 or 2028, it’is very problematic." Dissatisfaction of the audience. “This is explained by environmental and safety studies. The problem is that local authorities, municipalities and urban areas that have control over the multimodal exchange hubs (PEMs) need a timetable to prepare the budgets for the following year. In Villeneuve, for example, there are no problematic level crossings and the environmental issues are lower. This site will be less impermeable when the works are finished than it is today, hence our request for an exemption from environmental studies (which we will respect) so that studies on the works can begin." Especially, adds Pascal Rousson, that "the Avignon conurbation is being caught and paying fines because the dioxide level is too high, the train could improve the situation".
On this request for exemption, "the State is not responding to us. With the Occitanie Region, we remain on the objective of complete reopening for the beginning of 2026. We, with the communities, are in the starting blocks for the construction of the PEM", explains Lance Élisabeth Viola, vice-president of the association and deputy mayor of Remoulins. But "we cannot start the first shovel without the environmental study".

Open letter to the prefect, elected officials, the economic, trade union, tourist world…

Faced with this situation, the members of the association are aware that they will have to work harder: "Develop our communication.&amp ;quot;  Nîmes Jean Tournecuillert, railway worker and linchpin of the association, shares: "We have no guarantee.The work for the right bank began in 2016.After the partial opening, the environmental authority decided, suddenly, to make a investigation. Alone, we will not succeed. We need the population and the politicians, massively." Approval from the room. At the start of the school year, members of the association will write an open letter to the prefect, associations, unions, businesses, tourism stakeholders, and municipalities. Parallel mission: meet town halls to relaunch memberships. Their number decreased with the Covid period, there were 62 members in 2023.

In Bagnols-sur-Cèze, a brand new waiting room

On the good news side… In Bagnols-sur-Cèze, work on the station is going well. "The facade has been renovated, the frames are new, there is now a waiting room worthy of the name, open from the first to the last sessionn » (except the week-end). The passenger counter is brand new. The PEM is not finished, "there is a little delay", but the inauguration should be held at the end of the year. In Pont-Saint-Esprit, the SNCF "has long hesitated between a footbridge and an underground passage"(*) . Work on the passenger space will begin in September for an inauguration in early 2025.

(*) For all stations on the line, the option chosen by SNCF is the installation of footbridges.