“The Little Line. This is the name of the Facebook page that François Landry created last spring. Living in Saint-Maixant, near Aubusson, this railway enthusiast decided to act for the defense of the regional line depending from Aubusson and Felletin to Guéret then Limoges, via Busseau and Lavaveix.
Today a railway cul-de-sac of course, but which was once a column backbone of the department and which could become so again, believes François Landry. He is not the only one to think so since his page, in a few months, has already gathered more than 600 people. Practical information, various news and heritage feed this page…
“I had the idea at the time of the confinements. When I saw that everyone ruled out that the line was closed. I wanted to create this for people to come together around this cause…”
“I understood that if no one was using it, it was because the schedules were no longer suitable,” he adds. Example: it was impossible to make an interesting Felletin-Guéret round trip, we arrived at the end of the morning to leave at the beginning of the afternoon… When you want to kill your dog, you say he has rabies…
POLT The 7:35 a.m. La Souterraine-Paris train canceled during the winter: demonstration and search for a solution (3/12/2022)
From there the militant side of the P’tite line, in order to obtain better timetables which would attract people… During the Agoras du train in New Aquitaine, several users including François Landry reported this inadequacy. And in 2021, signs of angry users placed on level crossings had already alerted the Region. The cumulative total seems to have borne fruit at the end of 2022, with the implementation of a new timetable valid from December 11 to July 7 (read below).
Attendance justifies maintaining or not
An important milestone for the P’tite ligne, believes François Landry. A small victory even. But which the Creusois must now seize so as not to let this chance vanish, he insists. “It’s not the whole thing to claim things, when on the snapshot something, you have to show that you are satisfied and that you use it. »
In his idea, it is a question of reversing the steam: if the reduction of timetables is the beginning of the end for a line which is then less marked and runs the risk of closing, it is advisable to remove only the restoration of timetables may lead to new visits, which in turn justifies its maintenance. “These new schedules are the last chance of survival,” he sums up.
Floris Bressy
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