A rail line in southern France reopens after ten years thanks to cereals
The railway line connecting Beaucaire to Marseille reopened on 28 March to start a service for cereal transportation on behalf of French agricultural group Arterris. As the Community of Municipalities Beaucaire Terre D’Argence (CCBTA) noted, this line had not been used for ten years.
The new rail service will connect Arterris’ facilities in Beaucaire with the Panzani pasta factories in Marseille for transportation that was previously carried out on the road. The rail link to the site in Beaucaire was renewed with an investment of about 360,000 euros. Electricity company Compagnie Nationale du Rhône covered the most significant part of the investment with 124,000 euros. CCBTA contributed a little over 54,000 euros, and the remaining 180,000 was equally split between the Occitanie Region and the French State.
With the reopening of the line, it is now possible to move 1,500 tonnes of durum wheat by each train trip, removing, thus, 50 trucks from the road. According to various French media, the Panzani factories consume around 25,000 tonnes of durum wheat annually. If all these volumes are moved to the rail, the line would see around 17 trains running between Beaucaire and Marseille every year.
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