The 3rd metro line, the first of the projects rejected in Toulouse due to the impact of the health crisis
With commissioning postponed from 2025 to 2028, the third metro line in Toulouse was the first of the projects affected by the Covid-19 health crisis.
Born under the sign of the Covid, during an electoral campaign interrupted between the two rounds in the spring of 2020, this entire mandate will bear the weight of the health crisis.
During a videoconference on December 14, 2020, Jean-Luc Moudenc, re-elected to the Capitol six months earlier, drew the first financial consequences by announcing the three-year report, from 2025 to 2028, of the commissioning of the third Colomiers-Labège metro line. As well as the time lag of five major projects: the Grand Ville project (the renovation of priority districts), the Grand Parc Garonne on the island of Ramier, the Cité de la danse at La Reynerie, the Cité de la musique in the former Saint-Michel prison and the Cité des arts in La Grave.
At the time, the weight of the crisis was revealed for Toulouse, the Métropole and Tisséo at €169 million in 2020 and €167 million in 2021 and 2022, i.e. €503 million cumulated for three years. It is therefore the third metro line, the heaviest investment with 2.7 billion euros, which is the first to be affected. If the start of the construction site remains the same, at the end of 2022, the delay in commissioning makes it possible to ease the financial constraint. Jean-Luc Moudenc then explained that major projects were “not canceled in their preparation or start-up but spread over longer periods as far as their implementation was concerned. »
Since then, the extension of line B to Labège, announced for 2026, has been added to the list of delays due to technical difficulties, such as the cable car due to the shortage of electronic parts.
For Tisséo, the 5th wave, with a further drop in network traffic of 20% (compared to 2019), is bad news. Even if the main part of the investment of the 3rd line is carried by the loan and the subsidies, the commercial receipts are one of the keys to self-financing.
A cost of 2.7 billion euros
The cost of the third metro line amounts to 2.7 billion euros. While most of this investment will come from borrowing, Tisséo’s own margins are significantly impacted. The 3rd budget sustainability study of February 2021 forecasts a drop of 560 million euros in commercial revenue and mobility payment over 2020-2030.