Future A69 Castres-Toulouse motorway: “the 338 km/h motorway”
The future A69 motorway running from Castres to Toulouse should allow, according to the project concessionaire, a time saving of 35 minutes. A “lie” for the collective La Voie est Libre which denounces “a phony figures and an anti-social tariff”. The price of the Castres-Toulouse trip is now set at 8.37 euros.
In a press release, the collective La Voie est Libre protests against the DREAL and the concessionaire of the Castres-Toulouse motorway project, the company ATOSCA. The 54 kilometer long 2×2 lane motorway saves motorists 35 minutes. Unrealistic according to LVEL, “this 35-minute time saving is totally inconsistent with the current travel time on the existing route”.
To make the Castres-Toulouse connection, the average journey time is 47 minutes. According to the LVEL collective, “the dealer claims to save 35 minutes, which would amount to traveling 62 kilometers in 11 to 12 minutes, i.e. an average speed of more than 300 km/h for the motorist”.
Time saving”whimsical” according to LVEL who talks about “lies and bogus figures”.
In 2017, during the public inquiry, the Environmental Authority and the General Commission for Investment made recommendations in this regard.
The EA recommended “revise the parameters of the economic calculation in tenant account of a time route consistent with the other parts of the file and realistic, including at times of peak, and taking into account the recommendations of the EA on the actual emissions of pollutants vehicles and the reduction of health impacts in the city”.
In this report, the EA concludes:
Given the congestion at Toulouse, this travel time saving seems a priori incorrect, at least during peak hours.
The collective which fights for the development of the RN126 and against the project of the A69 motorway, is also indignant at the pricing policy:
A deep anti-social toll and a prohibitive and unfair tariff.
The cost of the Castres-Verfeil journey is set at 6.77 euros. A sum to which must be added 1.60 euros for the portion of the A68 to reach Toulouse. The addition is salty, either €8.37 the ticket price. However, on June 20, during the steering committee, the concessionaire and contracting authority, ATOSCA, announced decreasing prices for electric vehicles and reductions of 30 to 70% for frequent users. So, €4.06 for a normal vehicle and €2.71 for an electric vehicle.
According to the LVEL collective, a large proportion of the Tarn population could not pay 16.74 euros for a round trip Castres-Toulouse.
“This tariff led to a social divide and an unacceptable isolation of the most modest households who would be deprived of 10 kilometers of existing public diversions in Soual and Puylaurens”.
LVEL also highlights “that no alternative route is offered by the concessionaire, users who would not have the means to pay would have to go back through the village centers, losing a considerable amount of time compared to the current route”.
The commissioning of the 2×2 lane motorway is scheduled for 2025.
8400 cars and 800 heavy goods vehicles had to use the A69 Castres-Toulouse motorway daily.