Will the Bordeaux-Toulouse LGV have a favorable impact on the environment? Jean-Luc Moudenc (Mayor of Toulouse) against Pierre Hurmic (Mayor of Bordeaux)
In the pipeline for more than thirty years, the construction of the high-speed rail line (LGV) between Bordeaux and Toulouse is now on the right track. After a multitude of twists and turns, the “Grand Projet du Sud-Ouest” (GPSO), which will make it possible to halve the travel time between the two metropolises in the south-west of France and to connect the Ville Rose to Paris in 3h10 , has just taken a crucial step. Its funding was validated on March 14. Not without difficulty with regard to the number of actors concerned and the amount of the envelope: 14.3 billion euros, distributed 40% by the State, 40% by the 24 local authorities of Occitania and New Aquitaine and 20% by the European Union. From now on, all the indicators are green to envisage a start of work at the end of 2023.
The project is colossal since it aims to build not only 327 kilometers of new lines (between Toulouse and Bordeaux and between Bordeaux and Dax in the Landes), but also 15 kilometers of connections to the existing network and rail nodes north of Toulouse and south of Bordeaux. All in less than a decade, with the commissioning of the GPSO scheduled for 2032.
On this date, Toulouse will be one hour by train from Bordeaux and three hours from Paris for the fastest journey times, those which will only have one stop in Bordeaux. Enough to compete with air transport, predominant on this axis, one of the few today with Paris-Nice and Paris-Clermont-Ferrand, not to connect the capital to a large regional metropolis in about three hours by train. For Dax, the journey time will be reduced by 20 minutes from Paris.
However, despite the general plebiscite in favor of the development of rail transport in the fight against global warming, the project is not unanimous. A debate still remains on the environmental gain of this railway development, very competent by elected ecologists and a dozen environmental associations who denounce on the contrary an “environmental abyss”.
Faced with these criticisms, the question therefore arises: will this LGV really have a favorable impact on the environment?
“Yes, the LGV between Toulouse and Bordeaux is an ecological infrastructure. First of all, because it will cause a modal relationship. Those who until now took the plane to go to Paris or the car to go to Bordeaux will use the train because they will save time. However, as favored by many studies, the ecological footprint per passenger of a TGV trip is much lower than a trip by plane or car. In total, due to the modal ratio, the GPSO should generate between five and seven million additional passengers on the rail network and save 280,000 tonnes of CO2 each year. The ecological gain will be considerable!
Those who ensure that the carbon footprint will be negative mainly take into account the CO2 emissions emitted by the construction of this LGV. Or, go beyond that and include in the calculation the greenhouse gas emissions that the modal ratio will save. After 10 years of operation, the negative carbon balance of the construction of the LGV will be erased. Added to this are all the compensation measures for the artificialization of the soil, which will also be very low because it will mainly concern the footprint of the two rails.
To compensate, we will plant some vegetation. The idea is to compensate for more than what we are going to consume and we are going to do it in proportions rarely observed so far since in total the compensation program, which was based on 1,000 hectares of plantation, provides for an additional 1,700, so that 700 hectares will be artificialized.
It should also be noted that the GPSO includes not only the new lines between Bordeaux and Toulouse, as well as between Bordeaux and Dax, but also the railway development of northern Toulouse (AFNT) and the railway development of southern Bordeaux (AFSB) that the on calls the railway nodes. The latter are also not the subject of dispute because they will promote the development of local and daily trains such as the RER or TER, but also freight.
In itself, the new line between Toulouse and Bordeaux represents “only” 6.3 billion current euros in the total envelope of this project amounting to 14 billion euros.
Compared to the opponents’ proposal, which boils down to an adjustment of the existing one, we are in roughly comparable figures. The only difference is the time saved by this project. With a modernization of the existing line, we only gain seven minutes between Toulouse and Bordeaux (compared to one hour with a new line, editor’s note). It must be said, the ecological transition has an initial investment cost, which is largely amortized thereafter. Today, the interest of this infrastructure is perhaps no longer in doubt. All the necessary DUPs (declaration of public utility) have been accepted and all the legal appeals of the opponents have been rejected by the courts, they have exhausted all possible avenues.
Finally, it is often said that the TGV is elitist, but this idea must be fought because it is a received idea! According to the latest figures, of the 99 billion cumulative kilometers traveled by users of the French rail network over a full year, no less than 57 were on an LGV. This means that the TGV is also part of the daily train and that in addition it makes it possible to develop the use of the RER and the TER. This is a debate that makes no sense, especially since more and more young people are seduced by this mode of transport thanks to its attractive prices. »
“The whole LGV was an ecological disaster because it was done to the detriment of the other essential missions of the SNCF, which are daily trains and rail freight. This is not only my opinion, it is also the conclusion of the Senate Finance Committee report published which pointed out “the inconsistency of SNCF’s strategy with the stated environmental objectives”. And I remind you that Emmanuel Macron and his government opposed the new LGVs in 2017, saying that the high-speed lines were made by sacrificing the rest of the network.
The result in Bordeaux is a ring road saturated with motorists and 10,000 trucks daily. And it is untrue to say that a new LGV will make it possible to develop freight since the 2,800 km of LGV built in recent years have resulted in the exact opposite: a vertiginous drop in rail freight which weighs only 9% freight traffic in France compared to 18% in Europe!
Now, on a strictly environmental level, the LGVs to Toulouse and Dax are an environmental massacre which will succeed in the destruction of 4,830 hectares of natural, agricultural and wine-growing soils, including 1,870 hectares of forests which are nevertheless our best allies against global warming!
The reality is that these are projects designed at a time when environmental concerns were not predominant in our development policies. We are going to build stations in open countryside even though COP26 and the 6th IPCC report underline the imperative to preserve soils, forests and biodiversity. As for environmental offsets, everyone knows that it does not work because they are obligations of means, not results! In a few years, I am convinced that this principle of compensation will be regarded as as absurd as it is vain.
The modal ratio is also a mirage: the SNCF promised 12% fewer vehicles on Valence-Lyon, the reality is only -6%. And for the plane, even with a direct journey of 3h10 between Toulouse and Paris, people will continue to fly to Paris for the day.
All in all, the carbon footprint of such an infrastructure seems to me impossible to recover since the cost of construction is extremely high. The GPSO project communicates on 2.4 million tonnes of CO2 emitted ensuring that this will be offset in just ten years of operation. But this carbon balance does not take into account what we deprive ourselves of in the long term by permanently destroying forests which are natural carbon sinks. For all these reasons, I am in favor of the renovation of the existing lines which cost four times less for a longer journey time of only 20 minutes between Bordeaux and Toulouse by going at 240 km/h instead of 320 km/h. »