Finance the extension of the LGV (high speed line) from Bordeaux to Toulouse and Dax? No question for the green mayor of Bordeaux. At the end of October, Pierre Hurmic considered that it was “urgent to stop this insane project”. In the process, the president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga was “set up against petty selfishness” by recalling that the local authorities of Midi-Pyrénées had financed 300 million euros of the LGV Tours-Bordeaux construction site in 2017.

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Pierre Hurmic camped on his positions Monday evening on TV7, local Bordeaux television. A debate brought together the president of New Aquitaine Alain Rousset, the president of the regional CCI Jean-François Clédel, Philippe Barbedienne, the president of the association for the defense of the environment Sepanso 33 and the mayor of Bordeaux Pierre Hurmic.

The 14 billion euros from the Bordeaux / Toulouse and Bordeaux / Dax high-speed line “will be to the detriment of daily trains. We are not going to finance everything”, explained Pierre Hurmic. “The LGV is useless and we will save little time”. The mayor of Bordeaux has assured that the Bordeaux-Toulouse LGV will only gain 22 minutes between the two cities and 4 minutes between Bordeaux and Dax. Figures disputed in The Dispatch by GPSO (Great South West Railway Project) which ensures that the LGV will save 56 minutes between Bordeaux and Toulouse for the best travel time and 49 minutes with stops at Agen and Montauban.

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The mayor of Bordeaux Pierre Hurmic also returned to the financing of 300 million of the local authorities of Occitanie for the LGV between Tours and Bordeaux. “They did it because they gained an hour at the same time as us. This money was not lost, far from it”. Pierre Hurmic assures him: “The current lines – and all the SNCF and RFF studies say so – are absolutely not saturated. If there are no more trains, it is because we do not want to put no more trains “.

Faced with Pierre Hurmic, the president of the New Aquitaine region the PS Alain Rousset defended the need to extend the LGV to Toulouse and to Dax. Alain Rousset openly attacked Pierre Hurmic: “Can Bordeaux now take the Toulouse people hostage?” The president of Nouvelle-Aquitaine assured that the LGV represents “an investment for 100 years”

A 14 billion euro project

The extension of the high-speed line to Toulouse and Dax is estimated at 14 billion euros, 40% of which is financed by local authorities. The Occitanie region will settle 1.3 billion, Toulouse metropolis 616 million, the Departmental Council of Haute-Garonne 631 million. Five other departments of Occitanie will participate in the funding (Hautes-Pyrénées, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne, Gers and Lot) and six urban communities. In New Aquitaine, the department of Lot-et-Garonne, the agglomeration of Agen and the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques refused to finance the sums requested. The metropolis of Bordeaux is due to vote on November 26.

The LGV has linked Paris to Bordeaux in 2 hours since 2017 and carries 4 million passengers per year. She must put Toulouse at 3:10 by train from Paris. Work could begin in 2024.