Nice – Ventimiglia line: 10 months overnight maintenance work and no evening trains
There should however be a train every 15 minutes from December © SNCF TER SUD
There will be no trains running between 9 pm and 6 am.
It’s definitely maintenance season for the SNCF. While the Train des Merveilles is out of service since early September and for 16 long months, the Nice-Ventimiglia line will also be undergoing maintenance work until the end of June 2025.
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The work will start on 15 September 2024 and run until 26 June 2025. It will be carried out only at night, and there will be no trains, for the duration of the work, from 9 pm until 6 am. Only Friday and Saturday evening services will be maintained, with trains in both directions.
A replacement bus
The SNCF is organising an “exceptional bus” from Monaco to Nice at no extra cost for ZOU! season ticket holders. But be warned: it’s not very straightforward, and it’s best to plan ahead. To use the bus at no extra cost, you need to fill in a “pass Travaux” form and carry a paper season ticket that you should request, ahead of time, from an SNCF station ticket office.
The bus will leave from Sundays to Thursdays at 11.30 pm from the Pont Sainte Dévote SNCF stop. It is due to arrive at 00.10 am at Nice harbour.
Several maintenance operations, spread over 10 months
The SNCF is taking advantage of the absence of trains between Nice and Ventimiglia to carry out a number of maintenance operations all along the line. On the SNCF website, four types of work are mentioned:
- Accessibility for people with reduce mobility, at Villefranche-sur-Mer station
- Overhead lines between Beaulieu-sur-Mer and Monaco
- The St-Laurent tunnel at Eze
- The multi-modal hub at Beaulieu-sur-Mer station
These extensive works are taking place at a time when journeys on line 4 are already extremely difficult as it is saturated on weekdays. Since May, the PACA Region has leased two additional trains from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region to cope with the increased number of users. However, these measures didn’t do much to ease the situation on the line, given the record influx of tourists to the Riviera this summer.
The good news, however, is that from December onwards, train frequency should be increased to one every 15 minutes.