President Emmanuel Macron recently spoke at La Sorbonne about his desire to modernize France and Europe. Taking advantage of this sentiment, a group of Clermont-Paris train users have petitioned for a meeting with the President to discuss the issues plaguing the Paris-Clermont railway line.
The collective’s petition, launched last year, aims to reduce the travel time between Paris and Clermont to 2.5 hours from the current 3 hours and 24 minutes. With over 12,000 signatures, the petition highlights the frustration of passengers like Louise, who constantly deal with unpredictable arrival times on the train.
Comparing the travel times to other cities like Strasbourg and Lyon, which are farther from Paris than Clermont-Ferrand, the collective underscores the need for improvements to the railway line. This plea comes amid delays in the delivery of new “Oxygène” trains, scheduled to replace the outdated Intercités, with the first trainset not set to arrive until 2027.
Following a serious incident in January where passengers were stranded overnight on the train, SNCF implemented an emergency plan in February. While adding an emergency locomotive in Nevers in March has helped, it does not address
