Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne will announce on Friday a plan of 100 billion euros by 2040 for rail transport, the first concretization of which will be the launch of “metropolitan RERs” in major French cities, said Matignon this Thursday evening.
This amount, which corresponds to the estimate of the needs launched by the CEO of the SNCF Jean-Pierre Farandou – who envisaged this expenditure over fifteen years -, will not be entirely provided by the State, but will have to be shared by all the parties. stakeholders, communities, operators and investors, the same source said on Thursday evening. Ms. Borne is to launch this “new railway deal” by receiving a report from the Infrastructure Orientation Council (COI), a college made up of elected officials and experts responsible for sorting out the various projects, both rail and road or rivers.
“A historic investment for our transport! A central contribution to the ecological transition. An essential effort for the rail network. We are up to it and there, ”reacted the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune, on Twitter. The government intends to base itself, among the proposals of the IOC, on a so-called “ecological planning” scenario, according to Matignon.
This moves away from the current budget framework to add investments deemed “the most relevant to facilitate modal shift (from road to public transport editor’s note) and decarbonization”. Giving priority to the modernization of the rail network and daily transport, the scenario also wants to emphasize the renovation of roads and waterways, but excludes the rapid realization of “structuring projects highly anticipated by some, (… ) road or motorway”, according to an almost final version published by the information site Context in January.
84.3 billion euros over the period 2023-27
It provides for a marked increase in the means released by the State, from 2023 and until 2042. The bill would be 84.3 billion euros over the period 2023-27. In March, the government intends to launch discussions with the regions and partners concerned – in particular within the framework of the negotiations of the State-region plan contracts (CPER) -, in order to have in June a precise planning of the investments of transport infrastructures. .
Elisabeth Borne must announce Friday, according to those around her, “the starting point” of the metropolitan RERs, suburban connections around the large provincial agglomerations, which should not be only rail. “We are going to discuss with each region to define what the metropolitan RER will be”, then “go into the concretization”. The Société du Grand Paris (SGP), which is currently building the Grand Paris metro around the capital, will be “the pilot” of this project alongside SNCF Réseau, said Matignon.
“We will seek external sources of funding, in particular from sectors that emit more greenhouse gases in the field of transport”, according to the services of the Prime Minister. Pending the finalization of the programming, we should not wait for details on this or that project – high-speed lines or highways on Friday, the same source said.