Toulouse. The president of the Department calls for “imagining new projects” for transport
Through Guillaume Laurent
Published on
Less than a month after took the reins of the Departmental Council of Haute-Garonne, the new president was in front of the press, Thursday, January 12, 2023, for the ritual of the vows ceremony. On this occasion, Sebastian Vincini expressed his wish to see his community come back more to the table of future major projects in terms of mobilitiesa Toulouse and in the agglomeration.
“Permanent anxiety” in the face of pollution alerts
“Improving daily mobility” will therefore be, from 2023, one of the top priorities of President Vincini and his community. Worried about the “time spent in traffic jams” and their impact “on pollution”, he believes that “it’s a problem that we poison and we commit, because it also entails a great danger for the planet, and for public health”.
“If you look at the daily alerts from Atmo, it can become the constant anxiety: am I going to leave my house, or am I not?!”
Line C of the metro and the LGV “are no longer political subjects”
While local authorities will have to deal with two huge projects on the transport front in Toulouse in the coming years (the line C, whose major works have just begun, and the LGV), Sébastien Vincini took care to display his position on these projects.
“The 3rd metro line is no longer a political subject: on the one hand, it has been decided twice by the voters, and on the other, it has been launched”.
And Sébastien Vincini assumes it: this subway, “it must be done, and quickly!” », because there is a particular urgency to “stop this mousetrap that is Colomiers”.
The President also has in mind the other major project that is looming: the LGV Bordeaux-Toulouse. And again, it is part of unequivocal support.
“The LGV is not a subject either. This major project will immediately free the trains from everyday life, and I look forward to the first works being launched on the railway facilities north of Toulouse”.
If “the LGV will not answer all the problems” on the transport front, “it will contribute to it”, supports Sébastien Vincini. As these two huge projects are on track, “the subject for me is to know what to do next, he sketched.
The Department will “free up room for maneuver” for transport
Because the president hammers it: “The public transport offer is undersized for the 4e metropolis of France”, and faced with the urgency felt by its constituents, its community is ready to get more involved.
“Even if the reasoned removed all competence on this subject, I asked my administration to release room for maneuver, to be able to go further and more quickly in this field”.
“We are already a player participating in the 3e metro line, the GPSO, or the construction of bicycle highways”, he took care to recall. “The Department is already on these issues, but he’s ready to go longer! »
On the metropolitan RERs, Macron “was much less precise than on pensions”
Of coursethe project of Metropolitan RERfreshly put back on track by the President of the Republic himself, is “a concern” of the first rank for the president of the Department. But after the “Macron announcements”, Sébastien Vincini calls for clarification: “When? How many ? Where ? And with which actors? It was much less precise than on the pension reform…”, he mocked.
“The Toulouse RER was the first subject discussed with Carole Delga. Mobility and daily trains are a priority for the president and I share it”.
That said, if the development of “everyday trains” and “Haut-Garonne RER” (sic) is an issue, in the eyes of the president, this is not enough and it is necessary, he says, “to imagine great mobility more widely”.
“Imagine new projects, not yet put on the table”
“Must we imagine new projects, not yet on the table? Should new resources be allocated? I think so,” continued Sébastien Vincini.
“We are not sitting on a pile of gold, but we are a community that has resources, and we can find new means”.
Calling for “a real big bang of mobility”, the head of the Department, however, did not risk advancing this or that project: “Everything is imaginable”, he launched. “I am available to discuss it”. Then he repeated, “Philosophy, I think, it takes a big bang.”
“Overhaul” the files (and relations) with the Metropolis
“It’s time to get around the table with the various transport authorities of the territory”, developed Sébastien Vincini. While relations were rocky between the Metropolis and the Department under the Georges Méric era, his successor intends to renew ties, to work more effectively with the mayor of Toulouse, and go beyond political labels.
“I do not harbor any grudges or rearguard battles with the Metropolis, we have commons. It is a new era that is beginning, the opportunity to put certain subjects flat, and to answer these questions”.
To “deal with these major issues”, Sébastien Vincini must also meet Jean-Luc Moudenc “at the end of the month”.
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