A TGV connecting Paris to Bordeaux (illustration). - UGO AMEZ / SIPA

  • Blocked for months, the financing of the LGV Bordeaux-Toulouse is now possible thanks to the LOM Law which allows to create a dedicated company.
  • Eurosud Team, a lobbying association to see the project through, hopes that this company will be created quickly, just to be able to start work in 2022 for commissioning in 2029.

Two years ago, the Infrastructure Orientation Council pushed back the high-speed line between Bordeaux and Toulouse. In the worst case, it was announced at Matabiau station only in 2037.

This catastrophic scenario for the supporters of the LGV seems well and truly buried. Since last December 24, and the adoption of the law of orientations of mobilities (LOM), the possibility of connecting by train Paris to Toulouse in 3h10 by 2030 seems again conceivable.

The enactment of the #LOM law this week is very good news.

➡️ It opens the door to finance companies that will help advance #LGV projects with #GPSO and #LNMP https://t.co/VmTUpfyenX

- Eurosud Team (@EurosudTeam) December 27, 2019

What calendar?

“Today we are out of the debate whether to do it or not. Since December 24, we have two years to set up a project company that will create a model to finance it. Everything is in place today, but you should not waste time to have the first shovel of soil in 2022 and commissioning in 2029 ", explains Jean-Louis Chauzy, president of Eurosud Team, the lobbying association created to see the project succeed.

This new company, supported by the Toulouse and Bordeaux metropolises and the Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions, will be responsible for setting up new resources to finance the 7.5 billion euros necessary for the creation of this 222 km line. .

How to finance it?

Beyond the use of borrowing, the creation of a tax on offices collected by the future company is therefore already under study. "The economic players in Occitania have accepted the principle because it brings added value for all businesses that will benefit from its benefits," says Jean-Louis Chauzy, also president of the Occitanie Economic and Social Council.

Local authorities will also have to pay into the pot or even Europe as funds for major transport projects. The president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, also said she was ready for a new distribution of the internal consumption tax on energy products (TICPE), part of which may now be allocated towards the construction of this infrastructure.

One site, no sausage

If the green light is given for the creation of this company, the members of Eurosud plead for the realization of the new line in one piece. A feeling shared by Georges Méric, the president of the departmental council of Haute-Garonne. “According to the schedule announced this morning, the LGV should arrive in our territory by 2030. This is good news. But we are for a real LGV, not a partitioned LGV, not a Bordeaux-Saint-Jory LGV. As a reminder, we have already paid for the Paris-Bordeaux section, we are now waiting for the State to keep its promises, ”he explained.

For Jean-Louis Chauzy, the first picks would be given on the side of the two metropolises, but the construction site of the new line would be done in stride.

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