After the Paris-Bordeaux section delivered in 2017, will the high-speed line (LGV) continue to Toulouse on the one hand, and Dax on the other? The mayor of Bordeaux Pierre Hurmic (EELV) will in any case do everything to ensure that this does not happen, and launched hostilities against the LGV from his town hall on Thursday …
“The hour is serious,” he blurted out. Everything must be done to stop this crazy project that is the LGV, which was solemnly buried by President Macron in 2017. ”It was, however, the state that had finally relaunched it a few months ago. Pierre Hurmic launches a call on the internet, LGV alternative, “Against the LGV and to relaunch daily trains. “
The debate promises to be complicated in the metropolitan council
This high-speed line, called GPSO (Grand Projet du Sud-Ouest) for the two branches, aims in particular to link Toulouse and Paris, via Bordeaux, in just over three hours compared to around 4:20 today. The mayor of Bordeaux blames this project for a cost of 14 billion euros (for the two branches), “disastrous” ecological consequences in particular for the south-Gironde and the Landes forest, and for providing inadequate responses to needs. daily newspapers of the users of the territory.
While all the communities of Nouvelle-Aquitaine are in the process of deciding on their financial participation, it is a small bomb that the elected ecologist drops. The GPSO must in fact be financed up to 40% by the State, 40% by the communities, and 20% by Europe. But some communities in New Aquitaine are beginning to show their hostility to the project, or say they are in favor but refuse to take out the checkbook. It is in this breach that the mayor of Bordeaux hopes to rush into, to embark them with him.
“The president of the community of the Basque Country and mayor of Bayonne is against it, the departments of Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne have said that they will not put money, the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques says that it is is too expensive ”lists Pierre Hurmic. On the other hand, the Occitanie regions – which gathered 16 communities around it – and Nouvelle-Aquitaine chaired by the socialists Carole Delga and Alain Rousset are in favor, as is the department of Landes, as well as the president of Bordeaux Métropole Alain Anziani. (PS), of which Pierre Hurmic is first vice-president. This promises a complicated debate on November 26, when the metropolis will have to decide on the subject …
Alternatives that would be cheaper
“We know that there are alternatives which have been studied, assures the mayor of Bordeaux,” they consist in improving the existing railway line, to make fast trains at 240-250 km / h [contre 320 km/h pour la LGV]. They try to trick us into telling us that it’s the LGV or nothing. “
These alternative projects would amount to “between 4.6 and 7.3 billion euros, he points out. And let’s look at the time savings between the renovation of the current line and the LGV: between Bordeaux and Toulouse the difference is 22 minutes, and between Bordeaux and Dax the delta is 6 minutes. Should we always continue to gain a few more minutes, whatever the cost? “
As for the communities of Occitanie which had participated in the financing of the LGV Paris-Bordeaux, while waiting for the line to be extended to Toulouse, Pierre Hurmic retorted that “Toulouse will always be further from Paris than Bordeaux, and the TGV Bordeaux-Paris already saves them an hour of time … It’s not bad. “