In December 2009 the
NaviRail Atlantique was formed as an
Opérateur Ferroviaire de Proximité - a type of short line railway company - and port railway operator for the port of La Rochelle; the company was to be a joint venture between
SNCF (49%) and the port (51%), however due to SNCF's doubts about the profitability of the enterprise formation the company was not finalised. Due to this the port authority sought an agreement with
Euro Cargo Rail. In 2010 OFP La Rochelle was formed as a joint stock company; with
Grand Port Maritime de La Rochelle contributing 75.1% of the
share capital and Euro Cargo Rail 24.9%. It is responsible for short-haul freight operations around the port of La Rochelle. The first train, in October 2010, carried petroleum products to the Creuse. At start up the company had a fleet of two
Vossloh G1000 and four
Class 77 locomotives. Potential traffic included cereal, forest and paper products, and petroleum; the company hoped to increase the
modal share of traffic from the port from 7 to 10% by 2011. After one year of operation the company had transported 100 kilotonnes of freight. ==Notes==