“This is not a change of doctrine”, we are assured in the entourage of the Prime Minister, Jean Castex. However, it looks very much like it. The pause in the creation of costly new high-speed rail lines decreed at the start of Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term seems to have ended one year before the presidential election deadline. In a letter sent Tuesday April 27 to Carole Delga, the socialist president of the Occitanie region, and to Jean-Luc Moudenc, mayor (LR) of Toulouse, Mr. Castex announced that the State will commit up to 4 , € 1 billion in the Bordeaux-Toulouse high-speed line (LGV) project, known as GPSO (Grand Projet du Sud-Ouest).
222 kilometers long, 55 of which are shared with the new Bordeaux-Dax line, the GPSO will connect Paris to Toulouse in 3 h 10, compared to 4:10 at present. The overall project, the cost of which is estimated at around 9.5 billion, should be financed equally by the State and the communities, with Europe completing 20% of the financing. For meme Delga, this ad is “A first step, after a surreal weekend, and three years of silence on the part of the government”.
Jean Castex, big fan of the railway thing
The project, almost thirty years old, seemed to have fallen into oblivion since the summer of 2017. But in a few hours everything has changed. After a somewhat rowdy visit to Toulouse by the head of government this Saturday, April 24, the two elected Occitans won their case. It is true that they had not hidden their ire after learning that the government was releasing funds for the new line Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA), while they remained without answer as to Bordeaux-Toulouse . “We maneuvered well and put the pressure on by defending the territorial balance and the solidity of our case”, comment Mr. Moudenc.
If she played, the anger of the Toulouse duo was not the only vector of the release. First, at the end of the presidential term, the executive decided to get closer to the territories. And then the arrival at Matignon of the Catalan Jean Castex, a big fan of the railway thing, coincided with the beginning of the loosening of the rule of non-financing of high-speed lines. In July 2020, the head of government declared his desire to complete the construction of the new Montpellier-Perpignan line without delay. Mr. Castex has also, in his letter on Tuesday, underlined his desire to accelerate on the Montpellier-Béziers section of this Languedoc line.
You have 57.95% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.