Following the landslide on January 30th on the railway at the foot of the Bon Voyage cliffs in Nice, the TER service on the Nice-Breil-Tende line had to be completely interrupted.
After the intervention of the Region with the SNCF, four daily round trips have been offered, starting from April 9, in each direction between Drap and Breil-sur-Roya, with one extended to Tende.
This Friday, a demonstration is organized by the Friends of the Azure Rail from 6:15 PM at the Breil station until the arrival of the train at 6:41 PM (a bus takes over for Tende at 6:50 PM).
But further steps are expected very soon, such as:
– Urgent safety works on the Breil-Limone section by the Réseau Ferré de France, allowing the lifting of the speed limit of 40 km/h
– The realization of the commitment made by the French and Italian states on November 20 during the Rome summit, to renegotiate in a fair and realistic manner the so-called 1970 Convention on this transboundary line portion.
– In a second phase, a true development on the entire transboundary line Nice-Tende-Cuneo-Turin/Ventimiglia, which the French State has committed to through the voice of the DTA of the Alpes-Maritimes, as well as all official texts dealing with measures to combat air pollution, climate change, the protection of the Alps (Alpine Convention signed by France and Italy)
For Jean-Yves PETIT, Delegate for Transport, Vice-President of the Regional Council: “Until the protection and consolidation works of the cliffs are completed, circulations on the entire line remain impossible.”
With the collaboration of the Italian Rail Network, the SNCF managed to bring back several trains to Breil-sur-Roya via the Italian network, thus allowing a partial resumption of rail services. A replacement road service is maintained in addition to the TER offer.”
According to Germain Nallino of the Friends of the Azure Rail collective: “One must acknowledge that the actions of March 8 bore fruit since the Regional Director of the SNCF responded to our request for the circulation of the TER on March 11. The SNCF and the Region, including the Drap Line Committee, were able to gauge the mobilization of the populations and elected officials. All forms of actions or initiatives we can undertake have the dual effect of increasing pressure on decision-makers and developing the mobilization of populations, elected officials, associations on the needs of public service and safeguarding our line.”
The users do not intend to stop there: The next step is the urgent and safety works on the Breil-Limone section by the Réseau Ferré de France, allowing the lifting of the speed limit to 40 km/h.
This will be, in a second phase, a true development on the entire transboundary line Nice-Tende-Cuneo-Turin/Ventimiglia, which the French State has committed to through the voice of the DTA of the Alpes-Maritimes.
