“The 24 communities have validated the entire financing plan,” said the prefecture on Saturday, adding that “now the financing company will be able to be created”.
According to the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, this financing plan, highly criticized locally by elected environmentalists and a dozen environmental associations opposed to the project, must be sent on February 22 to the Council of State, before an examination by the Council of Ministers in March.
€14.3 billion
The cost of the LGV project is estimated at 14.3 billion euros, with funding planned at 40% by the State, 40% by local authorities in Occitania and New Aquitaine and 20% by the Union European.
If the communities of Occitania had quickly agreed to raise 2.2 billion euros in net contributions, those of New Aquitaine were slow to collect all of the 1.7 billion euros requested.
At the beginning of February, the region had released an additional contribution of 225.6 million euros to compensate for the refusals of the Basque Country urban community and the departments of Lot-et-Garonne and Gironde to participate in the project, while the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and the agglomeration of Dax have committed a lower participation than expected.
Currently, the Paris-Bordeaux (550 km) by TGV takes around two hours, and the Bordeaux-Toulouse (240 km) journey also takes two hours. The latter would be halved with the extension of the LGV.
The second phase of the Grand Sud-Ouest project (GPSO) provides for an extension of the LGV line from the south of the Gironde to Dax, in the Landes.