LGV Bordeaux-Dax – Bordeaux-Toulouse : Le GPSO n’a pas peur des ZAD
07/20/2022 | For its support, the LGV GPSO remains a priority file for Europe, which does not prevent an educational effort for a better societal acceptability of the project.
The GPSO project was not included in the list of 135 transport projects selected as part of a call for projects from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) in early July. An absence relayed by the small sentence of the MEP and President of the Transport Committee of the European Parliament, Karima Delli “We will not finance the project of high-speed lines Bordeaux-Toulouse and Bordeaux-Spain. It is a designated unpopular project with few advantages. A surge of enthusiasm for some and a hint of annoyance for others. However, the project continues to dig its furrow.
Because at the beginning of July also sounded, in Toulouse, the installation of the supervisory board of the Société Grand Projet du Sud-Ouest, which brings together the 25 local authorities of Occitania and New Aquitaine participating in the financing of the project, as well as SNCF Network and SNCF Gares & Connections.
A first budget for the GPSO Company
“The supervisory board of the GPSO Company is, to begin with, directed by Carole Delga (president of the Occitanie Region, editor’s note). It will be a rotating presidency, every two years.presents Alain Rousset, president of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, associated with this governance as first vice-president, also alongside the presidents of the Bordeaux and Toulouse metropolitan areas and the presidents of the Haute-Garonne departmental councils, and the Landes.
An important step since, as soon as it was set up, the SGPSO Supervisory Board voted an initial budget of 43.6 million euros which, with State funding, is intended “to allow the start of the pre-operational phases as soon as possible”. Outward sign of voluntarism and serenity for all of its members.
“Europe asks France to speed up Bordeaux-Dax”
“For Europe there is no debate, the GPSO file is ranked among the highest in the pile”says Alain Rousset for his part. “The only signposting that Europe puts is to go in the direction of Spain”, he insists. Contrary to the assertions of the President of the Transport Committee of the European Parliament, he supports: “What Europe is asking France is to speed up Bordeaux-Dax, to do Bordeaux-Toulouse concisely. Today Europe has reached 20%, but in the most cross-border projects, it can rise to 40 or 50%. » he points. For the LGV GPSO: 20% is 2.8 billion out of the overall envelope of 14 billion euros for the cost of the project. A Europe which has already been financed for more than 40 M€ of studies on the project, he points out.
Although the President of the Region has no doubts about the support to come from the European Union on the file, he also readily acknowledges that “the battle is not over”. A battle against the opponents of the project, which he intends to lead through “pedagogy”, and a certain capacity for resilience to repeat and develop his arguments as to “an essential infrastructure (…) for ecology and for daily life”. For the LGV Tours Bordeaux, “It took 15 years, he recalls, today it is a popular success”. Patience and length of time…
The GPSO will not be a Notre-Dame-des-Landes
What then, of the alternative solution brought in particular by Pierre Hurmic, mayor of Bordeaux, to run tains at 240 km / h on the existing line? Even renovated, “It’s physically impossible, especially because one train can’t pass another”slice the regional elected official far from denying the impact of the project on 4830 ha of vines in the South Gironde. “But today we know how to compensate perfectly. And a railway line does not waterproof the ground, unlike a highway, it also takes up less space on the territory”, he nuances.
As for the threats of installation of ZAD (zones to be defended) on the route of the possible future LGV, Alain Rousset does not want to believe in such a hardening of the oppositions. “If we don’t have a second rail line, it’s the widening of all the motorways or even the large Bordeaux motorway bypass that is relaunched, with significant ecological damage as a result” .
By Solene Meric
Photo credit: Alain Mautaufier