A meeting "of the truth", far from the "controversies of social networks".
Lamia Bensarsa Reda, the mayor (various right) of Juvisy-sur-Orge immediately laid down the rules.
Thursday, November 18, she organized a public meeting on a hot topic: the extension of T7 to the city station.
Since 2013, this tram has been running between Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) and Athis-Mons, while serving the economic centers of Rungis and Orly airport.
3.6 km are missing to reach Juvisy and its intermodal hub (RER B and C, 28 bus lines) where more than 140,000 travelers pass through per day.
A last section in suspense because the town hall has been asking for another route for years.
Proof that this file still mobilizes as much, about 400 people attended this meeting of more than three hours.
What are the latest blockages?
“The city has never stood in the way of the project,” insists Lamia Bensarsa Reda. Robin Reda
(her husband, mayor from 2014 to 2017, deputy for the constituency since 2017)
and my predecessor Michel Perrimond
(mayor from 2017 to 2020)
have never opposed this project of regional interest. On the other hand, we have, locally, legitimate questions and concerns. It is our role as elected officials to preserve the living environment, to anticipate all the impacts of such important works on the daily lives of our inhabitants. The subject is not the T7, but the route, and ensuring that this tram arrives in Juvisy in good conditions. "
Almost 400 people attended the public meeting organized by the mayor of Juvisy, Lamia Bensarsa Reda.
Technicians from Ile-de-France Mobilités presented the project.
LP / Cécile Chevallier
The budget, estimated at 223 million euros, has not yet been finalized.
"115 million euros are covered for the moment, which is nothing abnormal, this was the case for other lines", assures Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the organizing authority transports.
What is the new schedule?
The declaration of public utility (DUP) of this extension which will see the creation of six new stations dates back to 2013. “In 2021, we are returning the additional studies on the five alternative routes
(not retained because they proposed longer journey times )
, detail the technicians of Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM).
In 2022, we will submit the authorization files, then we will launch the works contracts, while continuing to optimize the project.
Work will begin for the section on the RN7 in the second half of 2023, in 2024-2025 for the section in the city center of Juvisy.
Read also Essonne: they are mobilizing for the extension of the T7 to Juvisy
Are the town hall observatory and park threatened by the underground passage?
Listed as a historical monument in 2009, will the Camille Flammarion observatory be able to withstand the passage of the tram which will circulate there underground with a 304-meter tunnel dug under the town hall park?
“This park is our jewel, it will be ransacked,” residents fear.
“We carried out excavations and core samples under the observatory,” indicate an architect and a landscape designer.
We have methods to limit settlements, protect the walls and foundations of buildings, and we work with architects from France.
As for the park, 78 trees will have to be cut, we will replant 48 of them, and the route will impact 14% of the total area of the park, which will regain its integrity at the end of the work.
"
Why choose a tram rather than an electric bus?
In the room, there are several to ask the question. "With an articulated electric bus, we save 50 million euros, we eliminate the underground part of the tram and the tunnel and therefore we preserve the park and the observatory", suggests Claude, who is campaigning within an association for a new route. "If a bus does not run on its own site
(that is to say on a lane reserved for it)
, it loses its attractiveness since it suffers the same congestion as cars," explains Élodie Hanen, deputy director at IDFM, and Arnaud Crolais, Director of Infrastructures. To create a clean site, we consume more space than for a tram. Moreover, a bus, even an articulated one, does not have the same capacities. "
Currently, 30,000 people use the T7 every day, the promoters of the project estimate that this attendance would double if the tramway circulated to Juvisy station.
What impact for businesses and parking spaces?
“I recently opened a business on the N 7 in Juvisy,” says a resident of Savigny.
The sidewalks will be smashed in, the parking lots removed
(the city center will go from 372 to 215 spaces with a study in progress to create a new parking lot, and on the N 7 around fifty spaces out of the current 180 will be restored)
... create a lot of nuisance.
"
Île-de-France Mobilités wants to reassure: “Throughout the duration of the works, a period which will be difficult, we guarantee the maintenance of access to shops.
We also compensate traders.
”Île-de-France Mobilités also assures us that“ the arrival of a tramway is synonymous with an improvement of the urban environment ”.