Provincial public transport lost 700 million euros due to the pandemic. Believing themselves to be victims of an injustice in relation to Île-de-France, they are calling for a rebalancing.
700 million euros! This is the cumulative loss of the mobility organizing authorities (AOM) in the province following the pandemic. The health crisis, with its two confinements and the decline in economic activity have indeed a drop in public transport frequentation and corporate transport taxes.
“Provincial AOMs have lost 200 million on the mobility payment (the tax paid by companies for transport) and 500 million in commercial revenues”, detailed Louis Nègre, president of Gart, Group of authorities responsible for transport, yesterday on the occasion of the National Public Transport Meetings (RNTP) in Toulouse.
The boss of urban and regional public transport operators estimated, facing the Minister of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebarri, who came to inaugurate this major national transport fair that “the financial compensation released by the State was much lower than these losses: provincial AOMs have received 29 million aid and 583 million repayable advances, which will have to be repaid.equity of treatment between the Paris region and the rest of France: we must rebalance this badly experienced situation in the provinces “.
The president of Gart was relayed by Carole Delga and Jean-Luc Moudenc on this file. For the mayor of Toulouse, who also welcomes “the State’s commitment to the LGV” (high-speed line), “the compensation is far from representing the totality of the losses” and the president of Toulouse Métropole also notes “unequal treatment between Île-de-France and provincial AOM” and met with a warning against possible new attacks on the payment of mobility of companies.
The president of the Occitanie region, who recalls that transport represents the first item of the regional budget, is pleased that “the progress made on the LGV Toulouse-Bordeaux, Montpellier-Perpignan and Nice-Marseille sections constituting a major development axis in the south of Europe “. But Carole Delga specifies: “A substantial effort is required from the communities, more than a billion for our region” and is worried about “certain provisions of the finance law which continues to reduce the financing of the regions”.
Jean-Baptiste Djebarri said he was sensitive to “this philosophy of fairness” but replied: “The overall budget approved represents state support for transport of more than 2 billion €”. An amount in which the minister accounts for the 565 million repayable advances to provincial AOMs, aid of 1.6 billion for Île-de-France Mobilité and the extension of 400 million for the national call for transport projects. Where we see that “whatever the cost” has its limits.