Companies are calling for a metro between Nice and Monaco by 2040

While the maritime shuttle project between Nice and Monaco is winding down, companies on the Côte d’Azur announce that they have a better idea: a metro. It is even “a priority project” in their recommendations, published on Wednesday through a study entitled “Azure territory: ambitions 2040”. This infrastructure could therefore be born within 18 years, according to the report, and would allow “the improvement of the territory, while 50,000 people go to Monaco every day from Nice or Menton”.

According to Pierre Ippolito, president of Union pour l’entreprise (UPE) 06, who took part in designing the study for a year and a half, this project would only cost “one billion euros, or two football stadiums. According to him, we should “not count on the rails of the SNCF” and build “a direct and underground link” to “guarantee a high speed and thus, make travelers abandon the car”.

Housing the assets, the second priority of the recommendations for the territory

This proposal is part of 21 others drawn up by the Institut Montaigne, the Stan firm and in collaboration with the UPE 06 in order to “keep the attractiveness of the Côte d’Azur territory which is full of assets”. Housing for working people, transport, diversification of the economy or even the aging of the population, each of these identified “problems” have their solution, to be implemented in twenty years.

In addition to a metro, the issue of mobility was central to the steering committee of this study, which brought together around twenty local business leaders from different sectors, selected from among 300 “major decision-makers”. “This difficulty related to transport joins that of housing and this is what leads to the enormous shortage of labor in many areas of activity on the Côte d’Azur”, affirms Chloé Lepeltier-Letitre, general manager of Connectica and “witness to the gait”.

Faced with this problem, Baptiste Larseneur, researcher at the Institut Montaigne, explains the solution of “intermediate housing”. “These are housing units with regulated rents below the market price. They were created to provide access to affordable housing for the middle classes who do not have access to social housing, in a tense area. An experiment to be put in place quickly when we see that the rent of an inhabitant of the Nice metropolis represents around a third of his income. »

Diversify the economic profile and its population

By having these intermediate accommodations and by facilitating access to accommodation, the Côte d’Azur territory would then make it possible to attract younger populations, which is another axis highlighted by the study. “The territory is facing an aging population, continues the research officer. Currently, more than 12% of the inhabitants of the Côte d’Azur are over 75 years old, which is more than the national average. By 2050, it is estimated that there will be one million people in this age category. »

He proposes to develop courses that could interest students from all over the country but also international ones, which would also make it possible to “diversify the economic profile which is mainly based only on tourism”. Baptiste Larseneur affirms: “The territory would gain by betting on sectors of the future such as ecological transition, cybersecurity or artificial intelligence in health and for personal services, for example. »

Finally, the actors who have worked around these recommendations emphasize the need to “promote cooperation in the territory” with the creation of “an authority organizing mobility”, but also “the adoption of a resilience plan food and climate at the departmental level”. Next step: “Having some of these solutions validated by local authorities,” says Pierre Ippolito. We are not too worried because we feel that companies are open to listening. The meeting with the president of the metropolis of Nice went very well.

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