A TGV line could soon link Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport to the cities of Chantilly and Amiens, in Picardy, by 2025. The project has been declared of public utility according to an inter-prefectural decree unveiled this Tuesday, February 1.
In this decree dated January 21, the prefects of Val-d’Oise, Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Somme and Seine-Saint-Denis declare the project to be of public utility, paving the way for future works and authorize, initially, the expropriations of the people who would be on the route of the works.
6.5 km of railway tracks to be created
The project ? Connect the TGV station at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport to the existing Paris-Amiens line. For this, it would be enough to create 6.5 km of railways, and to develop the stations of Roissy TGV, Surviliers-Fosses, Chantilly and Amiens, for a nevertheless high budget of 360 million euros according to an estimate made in 2017. .
Ultimately, the objective would thus be to allow the city of Amiens to be connected to the TGV network, while connecting – via the clocked TER – all of southern Picardy to Roissy airport, the first European airport whose activity generates 90,000 jobs.
However, the project arouses the anger of some local residents, who fear noise pollution and demand that investments be concentrated on improving existing daily transport. They deplore a lack of consultation that resulted in a route that brings no added value to the inhabitants as well as the impact of the works on the users of the RER B and D.
An opinion shared by the elected representatives of the Val-d’Oise departmental council, who also issued an unfavorable opinion on this line, pleading for compensatory adjustments.
The Roissy-Picardie link is one of the few projects continued after the break on transport infrastructure decreed at the start of Emmanuel Macron’s mandate, now closed with the announcement of new investments.