Le Figaro Nantes
A provincial RER: publicity stunt or real project?
By announcing Sunday evening his desire to develop an RER in
"ten major French cities
" in a Youtube video, the President of the Republic revived an old sea serpent around the perimeter of Nantes. If the "
ten agglomerations
" have not been listed by the Head of State, Nantes was part, in 2020, "
of the metropolises with high potential for the development of Metropolitan Express Services
", according to a report submitted to the government at the time by SNCF Réseau.
“
The metropolitan RER has been in demand for a long time.
This was very studied in Nantes in the 90s. Then, we took a lot of delay
, ”tells
Le Figaro
Dominique Romann, president of the National Federation of Transport User Associations (Fnaut) of Pays de la Loire.
“
We have known about this project for several years.
In 2019, the President of the Region had declared herself a candidate for Nantes, Angers and Le Mans
”, recalls for his part Roch Brancour, Vice-President of Pays de la Loire at the head of the Infrastructure, Transport and Sustainable Mobility Commission, while welcoming the announcement of Emmanuel Macron.
What would this new service look like?
An RER, "
it's the same thing as a TER but which passes much more frequently
", continues the elected official.
It is also the diametricalization of the railway lines: “
the trains go from one end of the agglomeration to the other without having a terminus in the central station
”, explains Dominique Romann.
Easy to say, harder to do.
Currently, the network operates in the form of a railway star: the lines all stop at Nantes station, such as Savenay-Nantes or Ancenis-Nantes.
The RER would involve rallying Savenay to Ancenis without travelers having to change trains in the middle.
This direct link is also for the moment the only concrete track: it should see the light of day by 2030, not before.
Who will foot the bill?
“
It is important to increase the offer and the pace.
On the other hand, this has a very significant cost
, warns Roch Brancour.
Today, we can develop the offer to a certain extent by using the existing rails, but when we have to go even further, as in a metropolitan RER model, we have to do work, buy additional trains, pay additional drivers ... Today the communities do not have this money
”.
“
It's very fair.
I want to answer the State: what if you put money on the table?
“, says Bertrand Affilé, vice-president of Nantes Métropole in charge of mobility and travel.
Moreover, “
by rail, when you go fast, it's a minimum of eight to ten years
”.
Read alsoSNCF: a Nantes-Paris train breaks down, passengers forced to spend the night on board
“
Everyone is going.
The problem is to find an agreement and put money in front
, “summarizes Dominique Romann, president of the Fnaut des Pays de la Loire.
Collaborative work between the region and the metropolis
By filing this morning a letter addressed to the metropolis about the future of the railways of the island of Nantes, Jean-Bernard Lugadet, secretary of the Nantes Association Déplacement Environnement, accompanied by neighboring associations, tells
Le Figaro
to have came across the president of the Nantes metropolitan area Johanna Rolland by chance: "
She told us all the good things she thought of the president's announcement and that she imagined a spider's web, but she still hasn't told us said when she would meet Mrs. Morançais, the President of the Region, to discuss it
".
Committed to the creation of a metropolitan express service for several years, he insists that the presidents of Nantes Métropole and the Region meet in order to weigh in on the government: “
We are scared that Nantes is not selected
”.
For their part, the metropolis and the region ensure that they are in regular contact.
