Trains and other things: Beziers, Coursan, Port la Nouvelle

Tuesday, July 9, 2024

Beziers, Coursan, Port la Nouvelle

Today, I will be going to Portugal, but only some of the way by train. I will take the train from France to Spain and then a flight to Lisbon.

The night train from Paris in Beziers - due to railworks near Toulouse it is taking a different route

There is intensive freight traffic in the morning

26134 with boiler wagons

427099 with wagons from Barcelona

7371 is SNCF Class BB 7200 - a pure 1.5kV locomotive

27153M, Naviland Cargo SAS

There is practically no competition on the railways in France; SNCF Fret is taking everything. I don't consider DB Cargo, which is basically another state-owned giant, and the transport is mainly done to/from Germany. On top of that, freight transported by rail only accounts for about 3%, compared with Germany, which accounts for 15%. But soon I will go to Portugal and Spain - they have even less than France, e.g. Portugal has 0.2%

26077

But I am lucky being on this railway here; there are many trains during a regular day

SNCF BB Class 26000 "Sybic"

Another Class 27300 from the former Transilien passenger service in Paris yesterday I saw 27301 - here is 27308

There are 67 units of this type; 24 have been sold since 2022, and there are 18 more for sale this year

This one is also owned by Beacon Rail and leased to RegioRail

Beacon Rail is owned by JPMorgan Chase investment group

The lack of competition on French railways has several explanations, one of which is that the railway is dominated by one manufacturer - Alstom. But that will change soon; Siemens Vectron will get approved shortly, making international transport much more accessible.