The financing of the high-speed line (LGV) Bordeaux-Toulouse, which must put in 2030 the fourth city of France three hours from Paris, has been officially completed, announced Saturday February 19 the prefecture of Occitanie.
“The 24 communities have validated the entire financing plan”said the prefecture, adding that “now, the financing company will be able to be created”.
The creation of this company must take place before April 23, the date fixed by the mobility orientation law (LOM), recalled Friday in a press release Etienne Guyot, prefect coordinator of the project and prefect of Occitanie.
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.
Refusal of communities to participate in the project
“From now on, all the lights are green to make concrete progress towards the creation of the project company by April, with a view to starting work in 2024 as the Prime Minister [Jean Castex] just got involved”rejoiced the president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga.
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. The Pyrénées-Atlantiques and the agglomeration of Dax (Landes) for their part committed a lower participation than expected – 12.8 million euros for the latter, or 10 million less than what was initially requested.
Currently, the Paris-Bordeaux (550 kilometres) by TGV takes around two hours, and the Bordeaux-Toulouse (240 kilometres) journey also takes two hours. The latter would be halved with the extension of the LGV. The second phase of the Grand Projet du Sud-Ouest (GPSO) provides for an extension of the LGV line from the south of the Gironde to Dax.