The long-awaited northern tram in Strasbourg is not yet close to arriving at the station, and for good reason. Initially estimated at 140 million euros in 2021, the final cost in December 2023 has increased to the point of passing the mark of… 268 million. A carload of additional tickets difficult to pass and which mobilized the Strasbourg municipal council for more than three hours on Tuesday. The municipal majority, however, validated the deliberation text allowing the development of this project to continue, leaving opposition elected officials with the strong feeling of an error in the direction of the community’s finances.
“It’s going to be the most expensive tram kilometer in France, more expensive than that of a TGV! We are going straight into the wall,” assures 20 minutes Pierre Jakubowicz, opposition municipal councilor and co-president of the “Centrists and Progressives” group. Like other elected officials, he denounces a denial of democracy despite public consultations. But also an investment which will jeopardize any other project for other neighborhoods. “A suicidal budget for the 4.8 kilometers of additional tracks” which “will weigh down the financing capacities” of the city, of the Eurometropolis, and therefore of its inhabitants who “will ultimately have to put their hand in their pocket” .
A profitable line extension?
Reproaches and concerns abound among the ranks of the opposition. “No consideration of all the elements of the projects during the presentation to the population”, “no studies of related operations such as the relocation of motorway entrances, the development of the Place de Haguenau, the road de Bischwiller”… The list is long. “From the beginning, there is a part of the costs that we keep asking for. We were told that everything was understood,” assures Pierre Jakubowicz.
Result, “we manage today to have at the same time the most expensive tram project in the history of Strasbourg and one which has an IRR (internal rate of return), which allows us to see if the project is relevant, the weakest. On average, in Strasbourg, tram projects had an IRR of 15%, explains the opposition councilor. But with a cost of 268 million euros, we don’t even know if we will be above 4%, which is necessary if we want the project to be co-financed by the State. We still do not know this TRI and we will only obtain it with the public inquiry which will begin in the spring, adds. In fact, we are being asked for a blank check for 268 million. »
An observation and figures that Syamak Agha Babaei, first deputy to the environmentalist mayor of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian, obviously does not share. The latter did not fail, during the municipal council meeting on December 12, to recall the scale of the project and to give some figures explaining this difference of around a hundred million. “A first cost of works, but excluding developments, has been announced at 140 million euros excluding tax,” assured the first deputy. Since then, there has been inflation and work costs which have increased by 13%, which brings us to 161.2 million euros excluding tax. Then 22.5 million euros excluding tax for work on networks and engineering, support measures such as the park of 14.1 million euros, for a total cost excluding tax which amounts to 224 million euros to which are added 44 million euros of rolling stock,” said Syamak Agha Babaei.
A northern tramway which could well be called desire if, at the end of the public inquiry which will be carried out next spring, the investigating commissioners determine that there are too many reservations to the project, or even if appeals in court prove that the rules were not respected…. Until then, the text of the deliberation will this time be submitted to the elected representatives of the Eurometropolis on December 20, before the start of the work, if all the lights turn green, planned for the end of 2024.