The “primeur train”, which connects Perpignan to the Rungis market (Val-de-Marne) near Paris, has been suspended since the start of strike movements against the pension reform, Fret SNCF said on Monday.
Since the beginning of these social movements, the SNCF subsidiary has been unable to guarantee punctuality and regularity for this train which goes back to Ile-de-France with fruit and vegetables, especially from Spain and Morocco, has regretted a spokesman, without specifying the exact date.
The massive strike, a “pretext”?
The first mobilization against the pension reform, the essence of which the Constitutional Council validated on April 14, took place on January 19. “It is with amazement that we learned of the suspension of the now famous train des primeur”, reacted Monday the CGT Cheminots in a press release.
“The massive strike in progress, with regard to the pension reform, cannot serve as a pretext for the suspension of this circulation, also, the CGT Federation of Railwaymen is determined to engage in new battles for the safeguard of Perpignan-Rungis” , added the union.
The CGT Cheminots says it regrets “the choice of the road which is made to the detriment of the railway” and reiterated its “ambition to double the modal share of rail freight traffic by 2030”.
Link relaunched in 2021
Unlike their colleagues on passenger trains, freight train drivers are not required to give 48 hours notice if they intend to go on strike, which makes planning more complicated. Added to this are the uncertainties linked in particular to the signal boxes, which can also stop work. The train usually provides five trips a week during the primeurs season, leaving in the afternoon from Perpignan to arrive before dawn at Rungis, with refrigerated wagons.
This link had been relaunched by the government in October 2021, after having been suspended for more than two years, for lack of customers. The obsolescence of the equipment, widely questioned, had then raised concerns about the durability of the link. All the Perpignan-Rungis trains, made up of 12 wagons in which pallets of fruit and vegetables are directly loaded, have been leased by the loader Primever until the end of the agreement, at the end of 2024.
To replace the train, the Agen-based company decided to go by road. “We are waiting to be able to leave. The train is not stopped, just suspended,” summarized a Fret SNCF spokesperson. AFP failed to contact Primever on Monday.