150 elected officials sign a forum to demand the abandonment of the high-speed train project
Construction work on the Lyon to Turin tunnel began almost two weeks ago and the opposition continues. In a column published by Reporterre, 150 elected officials, union representatives and other personalities demand the abandonment of the project which they consider counterproductive.
12 days since the work of Lyon-Turin resumed and the controversies continue. On December 13, France and Italy asked the European Commission to increase its funding from 50 to 55%. Today, it is the opponents who are showing up again.
If the project is presented by its defenders as one of the solutions to reduce freight transport by truck between the two countries, while dividing by two the travel time of passengers, it is however far from achieving consensus. Evidenced by the forum published this Tuesday, December 20 on the online media Reporterre.
“We reject the logic of the Lyon-Turin project and its supporters, whose record has been the destruction of rail freight in our country for 30 years. They are already destroying the railway tool in Maurienne for the needs of this great useless project”, can we read in the forum shared by 150 elected officials, environmentalists and rebellious, personalities or union representatives who demand the abandonment of the project, the amount of which amounts to 8.6 billion euros.
As long as rail freight traffic between France and Italy has not been restarted, not a tree should be felled, not a square meter of agricultural land should be artificialized and not a cubic meter of water should be drained […] The environment, agricultural land, groundwater and public money must be preserved! The existing railway line must be used immediately and the preparatory work for the Lyon-Turin project must be stopped.
Excerpt from the forumReporterre
For years, some elected activists for the abandonment of this project. Last March, Yannick Jadot, had made it one of the key points of his presidential program. The environmental mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet, had also already decided in 2019 by announcing his refusal to build a new line, preferring to promote the old one dating from the 19th century.e century. Today, he renews his commitment against the project.
He is also followed by the vice-president of the Metropolis of Lyon in charge of Transport, Jean-Charles Kohlhaas, environmental and rebellious deputies from the Rhône, Hubert like Julien-Laferrière (Deputy EELV), Marie-Charlotte Garin (Deputy EELV) and Gabriel Amard, EELV senators such as Raymonde Poncet and Thomas Dossu or the mayor of Grenoble, Éric Piolle.
However, all these elected officials do not have the end of the story. The construction of the train line is subject to international treaties and not to the competence of the metropolis or the municipality. Only the Region could issue an opinion, but only on the route of the future access roads between Lyon and the cross-border tunnel.