• The commissioning of the Bordeaux-Toulouse high-speed line (LGV) is announced for 2032 “at the most”.

  • The 25 partner local authorities and the State are not worried about the arrival of 20% European funding.

  • The special tax requested from local residents should not exceed four euros per year.

The Bordeaux-Toulouse high-speed line, which should save the inhabitants of the Pink City an hour to reach Paris, entered its “concrete” phase on Monday.

During a "dense" meeting, the 25 local authorities partners of the Grand Sud-Ouest project (GPSO), which also includes the LGV Bordeaux-Dax, installed both the project's supervisory board and its steering committee.

The opportunity to take stock.

In 2032 at most

The date of 2032 for the commissioning of the LGV is well confirmed.

And "it's a maximum", indicates Carole Delga (PS), the president of Occitanie who will chair the GPSO supervisory board for the next two years, before being relayed by her Aquitaine counterpart Alain Rousset (PS).

The first pickaxes for the line itself are still announced for "early 2024".

Work on the railway developments south of Bordeaux and north of Toulouse, carried out in parallel, should begin at the end of 2023. With these, “necessary for high speed as for daily trains, we are also in the process of bringing together the conditions of a substantial improvement in the local rail service", underlines the mayor of Toulouse Jean-Luc Moudenc (LR).

No worries about European funding

The controversy launched last Thursday by Pierre Hurmic, the environmentalist mayor of Bordeaux, on a possible withdrawal of the European Union from the financing of the GPSO, does not frankly fuel the nightmares of the other actors.

The brand new Supervisory Board speaks bluntly of “erroneous and misleading statements”.

Yes, the European Commission did not retain, this time, an envelope of 17 million which concerned the railway development in the south of Bordeaux.

“But we are talking about 17 million out of a 14 billion project, specifies the coordinating prefect Etienne Guyot.

The commission favors projects already in the work phase and the message is rather "come back in a few weeks".

Europe must finance GPSO up to 20%, or 2.8 billion euros, and has already paid 39.2 million.

A tax confirmed for residents

The track of a “special equipment tax”, like that established for the work of Greater Paris, is confirmed.

The idea is to be able to release around 24 million euros per year for the LGV.

"It should not exceed 4 euros per family," says Carole Delga.

For the time being, the idea put forward is to make households living less than an hour from a TGV station contribute.

However, "this aspect must be refined and the scope has not yet been decided", adds Etienne Guyot.

Moreover, this tax lever will not be operational before next year.

Bordeaux

Bordeaux: "The LGV is an emblematic subject of yesterday's world", says Mayor Pierre Hurmic

Company

LGV Bordeaux - Toulouse: The financing officially completed according to the prefecture of Occitanie

  • Company

  • Bordeaux

  • Toulouse

  • TGV

  • LGV South-West

  • Train

  • SNCF

  • Aquitaine

  • Occitania