SNCF announced Tuesday evening September 21 that it was ending the current project to transform Gare du Nord, carried by a joint company between Ceetrus, a real estate subsidiary of the Auchan group, and SNCF.
“Taking into account the unbearable drifts compared to contractual commitments” of the company carrying the project, StatioNord, SNCF “Can only note the serious failure of its concessionaire and pronounce its forfeiture”, she said in a statement. The gigantic project was to triple the surface area of the Parisian station, the first station in Europe, in anticipation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2024.
SNCF Gares & Connexions, the SNCF subsidiary in charge of stations, had been warned in July of a slippage in the estimated cost of the work, bringing the bill to more than 1.5 billion euros, against 500 million still envisaged at the end of 2020 , and a “Considerable delay” preventing them from being completed by the 2024 Olympics.
Long controversy with the Paris town hall
She now promises “Rapid adaptation of the Gare du Nord to the challenges” the Rugby World Cup in 2023 and the Olympic Games in 2024, and “The design of a new transformation project (…) developed in close consultation with the public actors concerned ”.
The concession had been entrusted to StatioNord, trade name of the public limited company Gare du Nord 2024, a joint venture formed by SNCF Gares & Connexions (34%) and Ceetrus (66%), the latter being the actor responsible for the design, works and their financing. After a long controversy with the City of Paris – which had yet approved the file originally – a less ambitious version of the project was adopted in November 2020, which did not prevent the difficulties.
An agreement was then concluded on the final form of the station: less commercial space and a little more bicycle parking than initially planned. More than 700,000 people pass through this station every day today and 900,000 are expected in 2030.
The town hall “mobilized”, “available” and “voluntary”
The mayor of Paris reacted on Tuesday evening to the announcement of the end of the project by recalling “The need not to postpone once again the modernization and renovation of the station”, she wrote in a press release in which she still said to herself “Fully mobilized alongside SNCF Gares & Connexions”.
“We are available and willing to initiate a new renovation project for the Gare du Nord which is at the service of everyday users, urban integration and intermodality. This project must be able to be initiated for the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2024 ”, explains Emmanuel Grégoire, first deputy of the socialist mayor (PS) Anne Hidalgo, quoted in the press release.
“The inhabitants of the 10e [arrondissement, où se trouve la gare] want a new, greener project (…) which will finally free its forecourt from car traffic and the many vehicles parked there every day. Our ambition is to facilitate the opening of the station to its neighborhood by giving more space to public transport, pedestrians and bicycles ”, writes in addition Alexandra Cordebard, mayor of 10e district of the capital.
Earlier in the day, Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj, leader of the elected Parisian Communists, was delighted with what he sees as “Abandonment of the shopping center at the Gare du Nord”, greeting “A victory against a project which gave pride of place to the private sector to the detriment of users’ needs”.
“Proof that recourse to the private sector always leads to exorbitant budget overruns”, said Paris councilor Danielle Simonnet (La France insoumise), asking the Paris City Hall “To finally hear the protest of residents, users and associations”.
The elected Communists in Ile-de-France have demanded the abandonment of another project that they contest, that of the CDG Express, a rapid link which in 2025 will link the capital to Roissy airport.