The original Le Monde article is behind a registration but has been reported separately in a French Railway Facebook group. I wonder how far they will get with having m euros transferred from a capital budget the barely likely Saintes electrification scheme to what is in effect a maintenance cost, to re-instate the Limoges route?
It will require a degree of flexibility of thinking and accounting that I have rarely seen in France, and even less in the UK outside the personal accounts of certain company directors The real answer must surely come from central govt directing SNCF Reseau to get on with it having declared they are now likely to write off almost all of their existing debt?
I am surprised the author of this article does not even broach that. I think the other problem is that it is quite feasible to have a replacement bus service especially now the RN is dual for most of the route. I would have agreed with the likelihood of bus substitution if the two Departements had not been merged into the Noveau Aquitaine region much the same happened to my local line when I lived in the Creuse, over 6 years ago, but then RFF upgraded the entire secondary line , as they could have blamed each other.
But now that Aquitaine has total responsibility and presumably funding, if not now then soon they will need a better excuse. Low patronage does not avoid the fact that the vast bulk of wear and tear will be down to the heavy freight services that should use the line - I think at least two private sidings still have access at one end? Thus Track Access charges will fall even more heavily on to the freight operations, something which SNCF Reseau has been told to cut, in view of the impending Open Access regime due in You may be right about the bridge replacement delaying any further work, but whether this is a convenient excuse to delay any decision, or a realistic re-programming of the remaining works, remains to be seen.
Given past shenanigans, I would not bet the farm on it. You look at how the TER is funded and the fact that they are rewarded for providing the lowest cost service and you can see why bus services are proving more popular in the country. I have also read in a number of places that the new government organisation is not pro rail.
