Companies are calling for a metro between Nice and Monaco by 2040
While the maritime shuttle project between Nice and Monaco move away, businesses on the Côte d’Azur announce that they have a better idea: a subway. It is even “a priority project” in their recommendations, published on Wednesday through a study entitled ” Riviera territory : ambition 2040”. This infrastructure could therefore be born within 18 years, according to the report, and allow “the improvement of the territory, while 50,000 people perform every day in monaco from Nice or Menton”.
According to Pierre Ippolito, president of Union pour l’entreprise (UPE) 06, who took part in designing the study for a year and a half, this project would only cost “one billion euros, or two football stadiums. According to him, we should “not count on the rails of the SNCF” and build “a direct and underground link” to “guarantee a high speed and thus, make travelers abandon the car”.
Housing the assets, the second priority of the recommendations for the territory
This proposal is part of 21 others drawn up by the Institut Montaigne, the Stan firm and in collaboration with the UPE 06 in order to “keep the attractiveness of the Côte d’Azur territory which is full of assets”. Housing for workers, transport, diversification of the economy or the aging of the population, each of these “problems” identified on their solution, to be implemented in twenty years.
In addition to a metro, the issue of mobility was central to the steering committee of this study, which brought together some twenty local business leaders from different sectors, selected from among 300 “major decision-makers”. “This difficulty related to transport joins that of housing and this is what leads to the enormous shortage of labor in many areas of activity on the Côte d’Azur”, affirms Chloé Lepeltier-Letitre, general manager of Connectica and “witness to the gait”.
Faced with this problem, Baptiste Larseneur, researcher at the Institut Montaigne, explains the solution of “intermediate housing”. “These are housing units with regulated rents below the market price. They were created to provide access to affordable housing for the middle classes who do not have access to social housing, in a tense area. An experiment to be put in place quickly when we see that the rent of an inhabitant of the Nice metropolis represents around a third of his income. »
Diversify the economic profile and its population
By having these intermediate accommodations and by facilitating access to accommodation, the Côte d’Azur territory can then attract younger populations, which is another axis highlighted by the study. “The territory is facing an aging population,” continues the researcher. Currently, more than 12% of the inhabitants of the Côte d’Azur are over 75 years old, which is more than the national average. By 2050, it is estimated that there will be one million people in this age category. »
He proposes to develop courses that could interest students from all over the country but also international, which could also “diversify the economic profile which is mainly based on tourism”. Baptiste Larseneur affirms: “The territory would gain by betting on sectors of the future such as ecological transition, cybersecurity or artificial intelligence in health and for personal services, for example. »
Finally, the actors who worked around these recommendations stressed the need to “promote cooperation on the territory” with the creation of “an authority organizing mobility”, but also “the adoption of a food and climate resilience at the departmental level”. Next step: “Having some of these solutions validated by local authorities,” says Pierre Ippolito. We don’t worry too much because we send an overture to companies. The meeting with the president of the metropolis of Nice went very well.