A new center for maintaining regional trains will be built in the Occitanie region of southern France. The project, which has received approval for rail transport in the Hérault department, was announced by Carole Delga, president of the Occitanie region and a member of the Socialist Party (PS). On Wednesday, September 16, she launched a public tender to construct a technical maintenance center for regional trains. The facility is expected to be completed by the end of 2028, according to France 3 Occitanie. Delga chose to locate the center in Colombiers, a town in the Biterrois area, stating that it will be the first regional train maintenance center fully funded and built by a region. The new center will be responsible for maintaining 18 regional regio2N trains, which are expected to arrive in the summer of 2027. It will also reduce the workload on existing technical centers in Nîmes (Gard) and Toulouse (Haute-Garonne). Delga emphasized that the project will improve rail maintenance capabilities across the entire region. This is particularly important as the demand for train travel in Occitanie continues to grow. Evidence of this growing demand can be seen in the number of travelers on the Nîmes to Le Grau-du-Roi rail line, which recorded 126,822 passengers between July and August 2026. This represents an increase of 23,000 compared to the previous year. Jean-Luc Gibelin, vice president of the Regional Council and a member of the Communist Party (PCF), highlighted this growth in a statement on August 25. He also noted that the new technical center is expected to create about fifty jobs with the French national rail company SNCF. Gibelin stressed the importance of the project in the context of moving toward rail transport as a more sustainable alternative to road travel. This shift is considered crucial in addressing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The new center is part of a broader effort to support the transition to greener transportation in the region.