We tested the Nîmes – Le Grau-du-Roi line: the €1 train, a good deal ?

La ligne Nîmes – Le Grau-du-Roi, à 1 € pour tous, attire des milliers de passagers chaque été depuis 2011. Midi Libre – Axel Dumond

The Nîmes line – Le Grau-du-Roi is a success, especially during the summer. For 1 €, the train takes the people of Nîmes to the sea. Midi Libre took their ticket.

Nîmes-Centre station. Saturday June 8. 12:00 p.m.:53. Two minutes before the scheduled departure. The train heading towards the sea is on the track but the platform is blocked by gates. Four railway security police officers search the travelers' bags. A word of advice: arrive in advance.

A mediator from the Samuel-Vincent association checks the tickets. At  1 €, for everyone and at any time of purchase, free for children under three years old. Special rates set up by the region.

Train under surveillance

Inside the TER, everyone, or almost everyone, finds a place. These are not yet the big crowds of summer. The audience is mixed. Groups of teenagers, elderly people, single adults and especially many families, with children and babies, sometimes in strollers. A few screams and cries regularly resonate in the train. Tap shoes on the feet of passengers and games of Uno, the beach atmosphere is there. We almost forget the cloudy weather.

"Your headphones please."The railway police have boarded and will remain for the entire journey. This summer, teams will be present on all the trains on the line. What do they intervene on ? "Often incivility, small fights", says an agent. "It’is mostly during summer". " There is no more delinquency than on other trains", he concludes.

Five minutes from the beach

Vauvert, Le Cailar, Saint-Laurent-d’Aigouze, Aigues-Mortes and Le Grau-du-Roi. Terminus, everyone gets off. It's 1:00 p.m. 45. 50 minutes journey. A ramp is installed for a wheelchair traveler. The vast majority of passengers boarding Nîmes stop in the seaside resort. The station is a five-minute walk from the beach.

To return to Nîmes, the last train of the day is at 6:00 p.m.:44. We find the four SNCF police officers searching the bags. "No alcohol, no knives ? " The tickets are again controlled by Samuel-Vincent mediators. They too board the train, which leaves ten minutes late.

More trains this summer

In the cars, again the Uno, the tap dancing and the railway security repeating "your headphones please& quot;. The TER serves one more station than on the outward journey, that of Saint-Césaire. On all trains on the line, a free bicycle space is available.

Six two-wheelers can be suspended. Opposite the bike area, the toilets are blocked. In the toilets on the other side of the train, there is no more soap. On the way there it was the opposite, the water from the tap did not flow.

The train, clean like the one on the outward journey, arrives in Nîmes without incident. Departing from the Gard capital, three TER trains run during the week and one more on weekends. Starting June 29, there will be six on weekends and five on weekdays in both directions.

Since 2011, the 1 €  train has been an economical (and ecological) solution for getting to Grau-du-Roi. Tied with the car in travel time. The only downside is that in the summer, it's often crowded.

The Nîmes line – Le Grau-du-Roi is also served by bus 132 in the region. It covers the distance between 1 hour and 1 hour 30 minutes, depending on the number of stops served. I subscribe to read more