A train every quarter of an hour for Christmas?

According to the Southern Region, the frequency of TER trains between Nice and Monaco is to be increased to every fifteen minutes from December 15, 2024.

While a significant improvement in rail traffic was expected from June 2025 with the arrival of the new operator Transdev, ending the SNCF monopoly on regional trains, the situation should improve for users from the end of 2024.  At least, that's what Jean-Pierre Serrus, Vice-President in charge of transport and sustainable mobility in the Southern Region is promising, with a TER train every fifteen minutes (compared with one every half-hour at present). “These are not promises, they are commitments. Just judge the results. There is a rendez-vous for users to join us on December 15,” he told France Bleu Azur in mid-March. “The fifteen-minute scheduling throughout the day, weekdays and weekends, (from 6 a.m to 9.30 p.m) on the Cannes-Menton route will be effective from December 15, 2024. This new service coincides with the start of operations under the new public service contract with SNCF Sud Azur”, explains the Région Sud. This is good news for both users and the Monegasque government, de facto strengthening the mobility plan.

The TER, the Only Solution

“The only real solution that is effective and carbon-free, and that attracts a significant number of passengers, is the TER. Let's face it,” Céline Caron-Dagioni, who believes that a modal shift from vehicles to regional trains is the key to managing our cross-border traffic, reminds us.

Monaco station, the third largest in the southern region, set a record for passenger numbers in 2023, with 7.8 million passengers, up 4% at the peak in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic. Monaco station accounted for 8% of the regional traffic recorded in 2022 (10.3% in 2019), with 92 TER trains passing through each day. “With the announcement of a train every quarter of an hour from December 2024, Monaco station is preparing for an increase in passenger numbers. An investment of ten million euros is planned between now and 2030 to accommodate them better, and this will go mainly towards the renewal of the lifts and escalators,” explains Fabrice Morenon, General Manager of SNCF Hubs & Connexions, who is in charge of managing the Monte-Carlo station.

A Petition Denouncing Transport Conditions

 If we hope to reach the target of 11.5 million passengers a year, and get motorists to abandon their cars in favour of the TER, there is no choice but to increase the frequency of TER trains. That's what the thousand or so users who have signed the petition demanding “that the SNCF come up with concrete solutions for commuters between Nice and Monaco” are calling for: “We're all experiencing the same thing. The platforms are packed, we have to elbow our way onto the train if we're lucky enough to get on! Morning and evening!” describe the petitioners, taking the example of the “tiny 6.09 p.m. train, where people are crammed in, one on top of the other, not to mention those who feel unwell and those who have to wait on the platform for the next train ...”. Something else that infuriates us: “We pay a subscription that increases every year for a service that is less than mediocre. Many passengers can't even get onto the trains, and they arrive late for work. For this very

reason employers are finding it increasingly difficult to find staff ...”.

The Monegasque Government has also clearly expressed its dissatisfaction with the SNCF. Minister of State Pierre Dartout sent an official letter “calling a spade a spade”. “The service provided is not worth what we are paying. So we have stopped paying”, says Céline Caron Dagioni, referring to current technical discussions with the Region and SNCF voyageurs. 

Double the Offer with Transdev

“We had the worst network in France with an 80% punctuality rate, 100 days of strikes a year, and 10% to 12% of trains not departing,” admitted Renaud Muselier, President of the Southern Region, during his visit to the new trains. That’s why the Region did not hesitate to change the operator as soon as they could, when the TER opened up to competition.

In its specifications, the new concessionaire Transdev committed to doubling the transport offer and achieving a 97.5% punctuality rate.  “There will be a train every fifteen minutes from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on the Cannes-Nice-Monaco line. This will be the first metropolitan RER outside Paris!” Renaud Muselier enthused publicly a few months ago, echoing Emmanuel Macron's catch phrase. With 13 metropolitan RER projects, the Élysée hopes to kick start the use of public transport with regional trains running every half-hour, or even every quarter-hour at rush hour, to serve the outskirts of major cities. The model? The RER was developed in the Paris region under the impetus of Charles de Gaulle, and extended in the 1960s.

A Better Quality Transport Service?

The new public service concession contract provides for the construction of a maintenance centre near the Nice station. This should ensure that the trains are available, particularly during peak periods. The region is also announcing the acquisition of 16 new 400-seat trains with 12 bicycle spaces per train, Wi-Fi access and catering facilities, as well as video surveillance and a reinforced human presence ... It should be noted that the Southern region invests nearly €150 million each year in the TER (investment in railway equipment, the development of multimodal interchange hubs and the modernisation of the rail network). In 2023 - 2024, the effort has been doubled (300 million), to finance the development of two new TER maintenance workshops in Nice and the purchase of new trains.

Better Timetabling with ERTMS from the End of 2027 

In the medium term, the alternative promising prospect lies in the deployment of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), a system that will regulate and improve timetabling and frequency on the SNCF network. Technically, “ERTMS geolocates trains in real time. This means that their position and speed can be known at all times, optimising traffic flow. To get the picture, it's as if you had a highly sophisticated speed limiter on board, which adapts the train's maximum speed in real time according to traffic and traffic conditions (curves, tunnels, etc.). As an option, this speed limiter can be supplemented by a controller which then controls the train's optimum speed”, explains the SNCF.  ERTMS promises to double the frequency of train runs, according to project director Jacques Paulet. “With the current signalling system, we are limited to 5 trains per hour, an amount that is not compatible with the increase in traffic. With this new system, trains run at intervals of between one and a half and two minutes, instead of between four and five minutes at present: we're halving the time between two trains running one after the other on the line. As a result, we will have more freedom to design timetables and more frequent service intervals than we do at present. This is why the Monegasque government has invested 11 million euros to develop this expensive technology*.

 A Train Every 10 Minutes by 2028

This major improvement in rail service will not come about for another three years. “The project is due to start in the Alpes-Maritimes at the end of 2027 and to be completed by the end of 2030. This requires that by these dates, trains will have to be equipped with ERTMS so that they are ready to run as soon as the new system is launched and the old one ‘disconnected’,” observes Jacques Paulet.  To implement this system, existing trains will have to be modernised to install the right decoders on board, and programmes will have to be launched for the new equipment to be installed as soon as it is built. “A new signalling system (ERTMS) is being deployed in several phases between Marseille and Ventimiglia. The first phase affects the east of the region between Théoule-sur-Mer and Ventimiglia. From 2028, it will increase the frequency of service, with a train every 10 minutes” the Southern Region announces.

It should be noted that ERTMS is also installed in Italy. This will facilitate cross-border travel: “Eventually, in 2028, the system will cross the border, and the two regions, Sud and Liguria, will be able to envisage longer distances without having to change trains in Ventntimiglia …”. 

 *The ERTMS European signalling project will mobilise a total budget of 700 million euros between now and 2030 ...