The National Assembly smoothly adopted on Friday a text expanding the missions of the Société du Grand Paris, renamed Société des grands projets, to put on track the promise of the RER in at least ten large cities such as Lille or Bordeaux.
Despite concerns from the opposition about the financing of these trains, the bill was approved at first reading unanimously by the 25 voting deputies and must now go to the Senate. The left and the RN mostly abstained.
Led by Jean-Marc Zulesi, Renaissance MP for Bouches-du-Rhône, this text legally organizes the deployment of “metropolitan regional express services” (SERM), the equivalent of the RER in Ile-de-France.
At least ten SERMs should be in place within ten years of enactment. The cities selected are not specified, but projects are underway in Lille, Bordeaux or Grenoble.
The adoption of the bill “is excellent news for our public services and the decarbonization of transport”, underlined the Minister Delegate for Transport, Clément Beaune. He promised “a specific team” to the ministry “to support communities” from the start of the school year.
The text provides that the Société du Grand Paris (SGP), currently responsible for the construction of the Grand Paris Express, be renamed Société des grands projets, with expanded missions. It will be able to intervene in the preparatory phases, take care of new infrastructures, or even work on existing lines on which no train has run for five years.
“In no case do we question the expertise of SNCF Réseau”, insisted Jean-Marc Zulesi in the face of repeated concerns from the opposition.
An agreement between the two organizations is planned. But the LFI Thomas Portes denounced a “competition” of the SNCF and deplored “the five deaths” of work accidents that have occurred on the sites of the Grand Paris Express since the start of work in 2015.
President Emmanuel Macron relaunched this already old project of metropolitan RERs in November: regional trains running every half hour, or even every quarter hour at peak times, to irrigate the surroundings of large cities.
In December, the metropolis of Strasbourg launched its own with the promise of 800 additional trains per week and “a high and continuous frequency throughout the day”. With many malfunctions so far for users.
A 100 billion euro rail plan, long desired by SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou, was announced in February.
And, on June 6, the State promised 8.6 billion euros to the regions to help finance their transport infrastructure between 2023-2027, with a strong priority given to rail and public transport. In this envelope, 800 million euros are earmarked for the first SERMs.
Not much when you know that the Strasbourg project, for example, cost 700 million euros and will require 600 million additional investments over the next five years.
This question of financing is one of the main concerns of the deputies, while the SGP benefits from resources coming from a tax on offices and a special tax on equipment.
“The tax base of our regions is not the same as Ile-de-France”, underlined Gérard Leseul (PS). The “funding remains to be clarified”, he insisted, proposing without success the submission of a government report “on the project funding model” and the distribution of efforts between the actors.
The debates also focused on “low emission mobility zones”, which should contribute to gradually banishing the most polluting vehicles from large cities, which are increasingly called into question by the opposition.
Gérard Leseul proposed, in vain, that the sanctions in these areas be postponed until the entry into service of a SERM in the territory.
The bill is a “necessary step forward”, but the “shell still remains very empty” in terms of funding, added environmentalist Sébastien Peytavie.
The deputy RN Pierre Meurin for his part criticized a text which “ignores rural France and the France of the steeples”.
Amendments have been adopted for the introduction of a single ticket allowing different modes of public transport to be combined within the scope of the same regional express service.
talk-away/clc
06/16/2023 20:01:16 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP