Strasbourg (AFP)

Will the large provincial towns one day have RERs like in Paris?

A report draws up the first specifications, local authorities are now asked to define their priorities ... before finding funding.

In its "master plan", SNCF Réseau defines what these "metropolitan express services" (SEM) should be.

The idea is not new.

The then Minister of Transport, Elisabeth Borne, in May 2019 instructed the public manager of French railways to work on the issue, and the Mobility Orientation Law (LOM) advocates "the realization of + metropolitan RER projects + ".

The document has "no prescriptive ambition," assured Matthieu Chabanel, Deputy Managing Director of SNCF Réseau, delivering it on Friday, in Strasbourg, to the Minister for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari.

"Our ambition is that this document serve as a starting point and be a contribution from SNCF Réseau to what will be played out in the territories, and certainly in a very different way from one territory to another," he said. he added in front of reporters.

"The ambitious objective" of the government is "to double the modal share of rail transport around the major urban centers within ten years through the creation of more attractive rail services," said Mr. Djebbari.

For SNCF Réseau, future SEM "should offer a quality offer that corresponds to that of urban transport in order to be attractive", with frequent trains all day long - every half hour, or even every quarter of an hour. during peak hours - "stations and stops that are equipped and as close as possible to local needs" and good articulation with other modes of transport, common ticket.

One idea is to "diametralize" certain links, that is to say to put end to end services which currently have their terminus in the central station: from Libourne to Arcachon without change in Bordeaux, for example.

- from Bordeaux to Strasbourg -

As for the rolling stock, it should have enough capacity, with good braking and acceleration performance to be able to stop several times without wasting too much time.

"Metropolises with high potential are those which face the greatest challenges in terms of population and demographic growth, the dynamic of job creation and the flow of commuting," writes the public company, citing Aix-Marseille, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Nice / Côte d'Azur, Rennes, Strasbourg and Toulouse.

Among these, "Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Marseille, Nice and Grenoble are already benefiting from real projects", she points out, also citing the tremors in Lyon, Rennes and Nantes.

Dijon, Montpellier, Rouen, Toulon and Tours could also be interested, as well as other agglomerations such as Angers, Le Mans, Besançon, Chambéry or Reims and also the cross-border areas of Nancy-Metz-Luxembourg, Bâle-Mulhouse and the Basque coast.

These projects requiring "an immense effort", in particular financial, it will be necessary to proceed in stages, according to SNCF Réseau which is projected beyond 2030. The "railway stars" - the railways which irrigate the agglomerations - do not currently have not the capacity to accommodate SEM, and it will be necessary to do a lot of work.

As a first step, SNCF Réseau encourages the regions and large French agglomerations to decide quickly - by 2022 - on the level of service they envisage, so as to implement "a coherent investment strategy, combining deployment technological solutions and infrastructure development ".

The diagram published on Friday gives no amount for the necessary investments.

To give an idea, the Bordeaux RER project presented at the end of 2018 was then estimated at 1.8 billion euros.

Jean-Baptiste Djebbari announced on Friday an envelope of 30 million euros, drawn from the recovery plan.

"These are means that allow you to go quickly on studies", he explained.

"There, we really want to shorten the time and allow the concrete phase of the work to be started after the needs have been defined, he explained." We are talking about a 2023-2024 horizon for the implementation of the first works. . "

© 2020 AFP