• “20 Minutes” hosted a debate on mobility organized by the Bordeaux Metro association on Thursday evening, with elected officials Claude Mellier (PC), Christophe Duprat (LR), Emmanuel Sallaberry (center right) and a representative of LREM, Véronique Juramy.

  • For Christophe Duprat, the tram network is going “in the wall” if we consider the traffic prospects by 2030.

  • “The metro in Bordeaux is financially feasible”, assures Emmanuel Sallaberry.

“In the metropolis, we talked for four hours about the metro, not about the mobility scheme…” The former vice-president for transport of Bordeaux Métropole, Christophe Duprat (LR), likes to remind that, on September 23, the metro had largely occupied the debates, during the presentation of the mobility plan of the new majority in metropolitan council.

Deemed too expensive and from another time, the metro is not yet in the project of the PS-Greens-PC coalition.

The current majority have preferred the metropolitan RER in particular, which seems to them to better meet the transport challenges of tomorrow.

Not enough to cool the Bordeaux Metro association, which had relaunched the debate in 2018 and presented a new, very comprehensive study this fall.

Thursday evening, she organized a debate on the issue, in the presence of Christophe Duprat, the mayor of Talence (and former vice-president of the metropolis in charge of finances) Emmanuel Sallaberry, the host of the mobility coalition of La République en Véronique Juramy walks, and one of the few elected members of the majority in favor of the metro, the vice-president in charge of major infrastructures, Claude Mellier (PC).

20 Minutes

, without taking a position in this debate, had agreed to lead it.

"Bad fairies around the metro cradle ..."

For Christophe Duprat, "the question is no longer whether or not a metro is needed, but when? He said Thursday evening. Today, we carry around 550,000 travelers per day. However, in 2030, there will be 800,000, which our tram network will not be able to support. We will be in the wall. The only solution is to go under it, because there is no more room on it. "

Emmanuel Sallaberry considers, for his part, that there are “bad fairies around the metro cradle.

As if the debate that we must have on an essential element, should not take place.

Because it's too expensive, too complicated, because the houses are going to collapse… We have heard a lot of things, but I find it really unfortunate that we are not having a political debate.

The decade 2020-2030 should have been that of the metro, the one where we would have validated the metro, because today we are out of breath.

"

"No metro on the right, left or center"

Why did the majority of the right and the center, when it was at the helm in the metropolis until 2020, then buried the project after having commissioned a study from an engineer?

“We can regret it, considers Christophe Duprat today.

But the political context was particular.

We were nearing the end of our mandate, with a change of presidency at Bordeaux Métropole ... And we were at the end of the third phase of the tramway, there were questions about the financing of the RER Métropolitain, which must also be realized. I am convinced of it.

I still consider that the study on the metro that we commissioned was a trigger, because it allowed to open the debate and, today, it is gaining ground in the conscience.

"

Our transport dossier

For Mickaël Baubonne, vice-president of Metro de Bordeaux, there is in any case "no metro on the right, left or in the center, but a metro which is of interest to the population.

"

Véronique Juramy insists on the breath in terms of development that a metro would bring, even if the project presented by Metro de Bordeaux would cross only five municipalities out of the 28 of the metropolis.

“The metro is reshaping geographic space,” observes the leader of the La République en Marche mobility coalition.

The metropolis suffers from its sprawl, we put people in situations impossible to drive for hours.

The challenge is also to polarize housing around efficient means of transport.

"

"Set aside 100 million euros per year"

The various elected officials present Thursday evening all stressed the need to conduct several battles at the same time.

"I am for the metro, but we need all transport, asserts Claude Mellier.

The metro is a proposal for the future, the plan proposed to the metropolis responds to immediate objectives.

What is important is how we are going to connect the Metropolitan RER to the metro.

"

But then the question of the budget arises.

How to finance a project that would amount to 1.4 billion euros according to the study commissioned by Bordeaux Métropole, 2 billion euros according to that carried out by Bordeaux Metro - for a single line - while financing express buses, cycle paths and by renovating the tram network that needs it?

A question all the more crucial, as the mobility payment [the tax paid by companies] brings in only 190 million euros per year in Bordeaux Métropole, when it represents 360 million euros in Toulouse ... "Toulouse benefits from a a magical place called Airbus, ”notes Emmanuel Sallaberry.

Never mind.

The former vice-president of finance is convinced that “the metro in Bordeaux is financially feasible.

"" It is a political choice, he continues, that is why we recommend setting aside 100 million euros per year.

With that, we arrive between 700 million euros and 1 billion euros of equity, knowing that the State can also subsidize.

"

"This metro must be the culmination of a plan for 2030-2035"

For Claude Mellier, “we must consider the metro over fifty years, which gives greater prospects. "Agreeing on the proposal to constitute a pot of 100 million euros per year, the vice-president in charge of major infrastructures also asks to" get closer to what has been done within the Société du Grand Paris, as for the LGV, that is to say taxes on offices, on hypermarket car parks, and why not on plane tickets… ”

“We can afford the metro, we have the means, abounds Christophe Duprat.

Afterwards, you have to want to.

But, in any case, we won't make people change mode of travel if we don't have an efficient way to do it, and this metro must be the culmination of a scheme that will articulate all modes around from him, for 2030-2035.

In short, the debate could only begin ...

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  • Mobility

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