News / Truck and rail freight services hit the buffers as French wildfires spread

Massive wildfires in south-west France are impacting rail and road freight traffic.

All rail traffic going between Bordeaux and Bayonne and Spain, via the Atlantic coast, has been suspended.

DB Cargo France president and CEO Alexandre Gallo told The Loadstar this meant five trains a day being cancelled since the wildfires broke out last week.

Mr Gallo said the company had been informed that traffic on the rail line will not resume before Friday. It is unclear whether the line itself has been damaged by the fires.

He said his thoughts were with DB Cargo France staff who may have had to be evacuated from their homes in the affected areas.

Another rail freight service hit by the disruption is Brittany Ferries’ combi service between Cherbourg and Bayonne, in the French Basque country. Some of the trailers it carries originate from or are bound for Spain, the UK, and Ireland.

On the roads, the A63 motorway – a major corridor for trucks between Spain and France – has been closed south-north since Sunday (26 July), a measure intended to avoid creating congestion in the Bordeaux suburbs where the wildfires are now concentrated.

This has, in turn, led to a severe build-up of trucks in the vicinity of Bayonne, close to the Spanish border.

Around 10,000 lorries a day use the motorway between Spain and Bordeaux in both directions. According to motorway operator, Vinci Autoroutes, late-afternoon yesterday, there were 6km tailbacks to the Bayonne junction with the A63. And there is no indication when the south-north carriageway – a 170km stretch – will re-open.

The wildfires started in the Bordeaux region last Wednesday and have destroyed some 42,000 ha of land and forced the evacuation of 220,000 people. More than 80 firefighters have been injured tackling the blazes.

Although reported to have stabilised, the wildfires are, nevertheless, still spreading, and approaching Bordeaux.