“It is time to stop putting patches on the tram and bus network”, launches the association this fall. Bordeaux metro. After placing the idea of a metro in Bordeaux back in the public debate in 2018, law professor Mickaël Baubonne and the association of which he is vice-president have just presented a new project, a few days before the metropolis unveils its mobility strategy, on September 10. Interview.
You are coming back to school with a new metro project, while the metropolis must unveil its mobility strategy. The idea is to put pressure on the elected, right?
That’s it. We are afraid that this mobility strategy will consist of a simple overhaul of an already known plan, with perhaps one or two new journeys, and that we will be content to launch another study for a possible metro, while the mobility strategy is obviously very different depending on whether or not we integrate a metro. In any case, we think that we can no longer say that we are going to “optimize the existing”, which we have already been doing for ten years, especially with regard to the traffic projections of the Urba. [l’agence d’urbanisme de Bordeaux Aquitaine] which announces 250,000 additional travelers on the network by 2030, an increase of 42%. Hence this project which should be implemented from 2025 and which would be spread over ten years.
Several elected officials of the metropolis are not closed to the idea of a metro, but do you nevertheless feel they are able to take this step?
Indeed, they are not closed but they only have arguments against. We have the impression that they are looking for excuses not to do it, sometimes with the cost, sometimes with the work or even the carbon footprint …
However, these are real arguments …
Not really. Admittedly, a metro would have a cost of two billion euros, but spread over a decade, and ultimately with a profitability much higher than the tram. The works would be limited to the right of the stations, which is less impactful than a tram line. As for the carbon footprint, we have to dig deeper, but behind that it saves tons of greenhouse gases.
Let’s talk about the project you are presenting, what has changed since 2018?
My idea in 2018 was to put the idea of a metro back on the table, it’s done. Then, we wanted to involve citizens to imagine the best project for Bordeaux. This is why we are not presenting just one metro line, but a global mobility project, with an overhaul of the bus network and an express cycle network around the metro to connect to it.
And what are the big ideas of this metro line?
It is largely inspired by that presented by the engineer commissioned in 2019 by the metropolis to work on a project. Along the 18 stations, it seemed important to us to serve the hyper-center with in particular a Gambetta-Mériadeck pole, which allows connections with the tramway and the future BHNS of Saint-Aubin. It also seemed essential to us to serve the Bordeaux courtyards, which are too narrow to provide high-level bus connections. Finally, we integrated the station because it is an anomaly that it is not served by a metro. It is a line which would be both aerial and underground, knowing that the underground part is in Cenon and between Saint-Jean station and Arts et Métiers. We would have significantly improved travel times, for example with Cité administrative-Gambetta in six minutes, or Gradignan-Gare Saint-Jean in 26 minutes.
The question of the Bordeaux basement, which was at the origin of the abandonment of the metro project in the 1990s under Jacques Chaban-Delmas, still comes up in discussions when we talk about a metro in Bordeaux. What do you think ?
It is frankly difficult to get out of this idea, which has been deeply rooted in the minds of Bordeaux residents. A metro would not be feasible because we are on swamps. There are also swamps in Lille, Lyon, Rennes, where they have pierced a metro. There is no difficulty with that.