For Jean-Noël Boisseleau, “the Toulouse-Bordeaux high-speed line is complementary to the POLT line which must be modernized, therefore efficient by 2025” – Medialot
Interview with the Department’s rail expert and vice-president of Emergency Line POLT.
Jean-Noël Boisseleau, rail expert with parliamentarians and the Department and vice-president of Emergency POLT Line, takes stock of the POLT line and the Bordeaux-Toulouse LGV. Maintenance.
> Medialot: where is the financing plan for the renovation of the POLT line?
Jean-Noël Boisseleau: The State has confirmed to us its investment of 257 million euros. A priori 130 are missing to be divided between the 4 Regions: Occitanie, New-Aquitaine, Center-Val de Loire and Île-de-France. Following this 1st phase, we will gain, from Cahors, 30 minutes to arrive in Paris in 4:50. We will then find the historic hourly amplitude of the Capitol. A second modernization phase is currently being quantified which will allow Cahors to be set at 4:20 am – 4:30 am from Paris. We remain optimistic but it will agree to our knowledge that the Presidents of Regions should be called upon by the State; the wait has been going on for almost one… and modernization is thus delayed… users penalized…
> M .: what is your feeling about the Bordeaux-Toulouse high-speed line?
J.-NB: for me, one cannot be against modernity. The Paris-Bordeaux-Toulouse high-speed line is complementary to the Paris-Orléans-Limoges-Toulouse line and these are different territories. The 1st TGV line was Paris-Lyon-Marseille in the 1980s The TGV line that should have followed was Paris-Bordeaux-Toulouse, 5th and 4th largest city in France… or Bordeaux was only served by TGV in 2017, and Toulouse are still assisting as well as the Occitanie Region… Cahors and the south of the Lot will then have a real alternative with the LGV. The center of the department, Grand Figeac, Cauvaldor, Bouriane… will continue to go to Paris by POLT, hence the urgent need for regeneration, the modernization of the POLT line beyond the current master plan. Taking into account the future investments of the Department of Lot and Grand Cahors for the LGV, access to Toulouse via the GPSO (Large South-West Railway Project) must also become faster for the direct intercity POLT trains which could then approach or reach a speed of 200 km / h, or even 220 km / h, from Caussade, based on the cause of the investments, in particular on the current infrastructure, the removal of level crossings, given the favorable rectilinear profile of the line in the plain to Saint-Jory shortly before Toulouse. Regional express trains (TER) complete this offer for the fine desserts of the territories.
> M.: are you optimistic?
J.-NB: the POLT line has a new future which is opening up in front of it at the time of decarbonisation. Our association is working on relaunching freight on the line. For night trains, the Objectif Train de Nuit Association with which we collaborate strongly is once again asking for greater reliability and regularity of services to the Lot both on Paris-Souillac-Gourdon-Cahors-Toulouse and on Paris- Gramat-Assier-Figeac-Rodez-Albi. The association has strongly contributed to putting back the Paris-Tarbes on December 12 and the Paris-Aurillac normally at the end of 2022. In conclusion, we have acted during the last declaration of our GA specific requests:
– which are available for the Lot by 7 daily connections Paris-Toulouse instead of 3 currently including 2 rapids serving the City-Prefecture, Cahors then Brive-Limoges-Châteauroux- Paris and 5 express serving Cahors, Gourdon and Souillac then Brive-Limoges … until Paris
– we have set 2025 as the deadline for the end of the regeneration work and the two phases modernization given the dilapidated infrastructure of the line and rolling stock causing traffic incidents and repeated delays severely penalizing users.