It's a little music that is becoming more and more insistent.
The one that questions the future of line 17 of the Grand Paris Express, normally scheduled to connect Le Mesnil-Amelot (Seine-et-Marne) to Saint-Denis Pleyel (Seine-Saint-Denis) in 2030.
With the abandonment of the EuropaCity shopping and leisure center project and of Roissy terminal T4, two of the nine stations on line 17 suddenly lost their appeal.
Enough to fear the abandonment of the entire line.
So a few days before the first supervisory board of Jean-François Monteils, new chairman of the management board of the SGP (Société du Grand Paris), scheduled for early May, supporters and opponents of the line reaffirm their positions stronger than ever.
Its defenders want an alternative to the RER B
On April 11, around forty elected officials from the communities of Val-d'Oise, Seine-et-Marne as well as Valérie Pécresse and Stéphane Beaudet, respectively president and vice-president of the Ile-de-France region, have signed a forum in the JDD to defend the project for the 17: "What is at stake today is the future of the north of the Ile-de-France which also has the right to a dynamic of economic and sustainable development ”, we can read. “Line 17 is also intended to create an alternative to the RER B, by unloading it and allowing it to survive,” said another local elected official from the North of the Ile-de-France region. If we review the route, we will open a Pandora's box. "
In short, according to its defenders, even without the giant EuropaCity project and the expansion of Roissy airport, and therefore even if it is less profitable economically, this branch of the supermetro must see the light of day for the inhabitants and economic development. of this part of Ile-de-France.
"Maybe we could think about a new route"
But opposite, the opponents are numerous. Last February again, several groups, demonstrating at the Triangle de Gonesse, demanded the outright abolition of the Gonesse station, a "station in the middle of the fields". The Greens of EELV believe for their part that it is the entire line that "no longer has a raison d'être". Even the Fnaut, the federation of transport users, wonders about "the socio-economic profitability of this line" deprived of its large service centers. Pointing to the fact that from the Bourget RER are served only exhibition centers or airports, "perhaps we could at least wait a bit, time to think about a new route", estimates its representative, Marc Pélissier.
Others are also wondering about the accumulation of lines - and therefore works - in the same sector.
Because the 17 will be next to the RER B but also to the very controversial CDG Express.
This direct link between Gare de l'Est and Roissy, scheduled for the end of 2025, is accused by its detractors of favoring tourists from Roissy to Ile-de-France.
“Between the RER B, the CDG Express and line 17, which all serve Roissy, things are starting to do a lot,” sighs an elected official from Ile-de-France Mobilités.
At some point, you might have to choose.
"
No questioning, according to the Société du Grand Paris
The Société du Grand Paris (SGP), for its part, ensures that it is "above all in accordance with the overall scheme of this great project of national interest". If, at the management of the company which manages the construction of the supermetro, one expects that “such a vast project could lead to numerous local oppositions”, “and that is why [it has] set up from the outset mechanisms for consultation, exchange and dialogue ”, it considers, on the other hand, that its“ good progress cannot be interrupted with each dispute ”.
And the SGP specifies: “In the definition of the overall scheme, the developments mentioned have never been presented or understood as conditioning the route to any extent, or a fortiori the existence of this line. "And to add that line 17 will benefit" 565,000 Ile-de-France residents "in the territories," will make it possible to desaturate the RER B and will promote the modal shift from private cars to public transport ". According to the latest figures, 76% of home-work trips for the 120,000 workers working in the five municipalities in the Roissy airport area are now made by car.
In January 2019, a civil engineering contract was awarded to the “Avenir” consortium for the construction of the Le Bourget-Aéroport station and seven ancillary structures up to the Triangle-de-Gonesse station. The Florence tunnel boring machine is also digging from Bonneuil-en-France towards Le Bourget. So ? Still on track for line 17? If so, until when?
