How will travelers go to Roissy in the coming years?
Already criticized by some elected officials, residents and activists, the major train and metro projects to the airport platform, supposed to relieve the A1 motorway and an increasingly dilapidated RER B, are a little more in the spotlight with the prospects of decrease in air traffic.
The official abandonment of the terminal 4 project indeed adds water to the mill of the opponents to the direct CDG Express train and to the future line 17 of the Grand Paris Express metro.
The CDG Express still slowed down by the courts
Justice decided, at the end of January, to stop the work of the direct train between Paris Gare de l'Est and Roissy, scheduled for 2025. After a first victory of the opponents on November 9, 2020, the CDG Express had resumed its work despite early January.
It is a new legal action from the mayor (PCF) of Mitry-Mory (Seine-et-Marne), Charlotte Blandiot-Faride, who is at the origin of this decision.
The promoters of the project (Paris Aéroports, SNCF Réseau and Caisse des Dépôts) decided to continue the work in spite of everything, except in the Mitry-Mory sector where the decision applies according to them.
Deemed essential for the future of the airport according to Paris Aéroports, the CDG Express must provide a direct connection in 20 minutes to Gare de l'Est, with a train every 15 minutes, for 24 € each way.
All in parallel with the RER B over 24 km out of the 32 that will be on the line.
Enough to fuel the image of a train of the rich in competition with the daily transport of commuters.
CDG Express is defending itself by ensuring the financing of more than 500 million euros of work on the RER B. But all these projects are slowed down for the moment.
Line 17 weakened by the abandonment of EuropaCity and T4
This future Grand Paris Express metro line must link the large Saint-Denis-Pleyel hub to Mesnil-Amelot, passing through Le Bourget, the Triangle de Gonesse, Villepinte and Roissy, by 2030. Problem: two stations on the layout have lead in the wing.
Since the abandonment of the EuropaCity shopping and leisure center project, the Triangle de Gonesse station will begin to be built in the middle of the fields, pending a hypothetical alternative urbanization project.
Environmental opponents even installed a ZAD (zone to defend) there last weekend.
And another station, the one that was to be located in the heart of Terminal 4, should therefore not see the light of day either.
From there to saying that the whole line will not be done, there is a step taken by the main association of transport users, the FNAUT Ile-de-France.
“The entirety of line 17 must be re-examined”, estimates the association.
