Some three years ago our Region of Languedoc Roussillon took the very ecological decision to offer one euro fares on the region’s bus services and gradually on the various branch lines.

The first to enjoy this extra cheap tariff were the Perpignan buses closely followed by the branch line from Nimes to Le Grau-du-Roi via Aigues-Mortes.

It was an instant success and many car drivers left their cars in the garage and went either for the ride or to the sea for just one euro.  SNCF were forced to double the number of seats available and that meant adding another unit to the single autorail which operated the service before the new tariff.

Since other branches have been added. Carcassonne to Quillan, Perpignan to Villefranche – Vernet-les-Bains where it connects with the little ‘Train Jaune’ up into the Pyrenees.

The last line to offer the one euro line is not a branch line but part of the once former main line from Béziers to Nessargues and on to Clermont Ferrand and Paris.  An excellent special feature on this line appeared in Todays Railways in issue No. TREU 201 September 2012

However the section of the line to benefit from the one euro fare is only the section inside the Languedoc Roussillon region from Béziers as far as Ceilhes - Roqueredonde some 48 minutes south of Millau where it enters the region of Midi Pyrenees.

However the day the new service started with the introduction of the December timetable 2012, a number of the trains were replaced by buses with longer journey times.

Not surprisingly this new offer has not appealed to the travellers. Why, perhaps because between Bédarieux and Béziers it only stops at Magalas and many commuters just do not want to go Béziers station.  If ever there was a case for a train tram this is one provided they add many more stops to serve the university, lycées and main shopping centres.

Wishful thinking was that if the new High Speed Line were to be built from Montpellier to Perpignan adding a new station close to Béziers airport and the motorway interchanges, then the service could have been substantially improved.

With the indefinite postponement of this new High Speed Line as a result of the Mobility 21 commission’s report we are now back to square one and one can sympathise with the CGT’s views this is a case of death by strangulation.  The region has spent a fortune in providing and erecting expensive signs, now the CGT have replied with a very imaginative poster on the front of Magalas station.  This one is worth a clap on the back to the CGT.

 

Chris Elliott author of ‘The Lost Railway Lines of l’Hérault’ and joint author of ‘Night Ferry 1936 - 1980