The exchanges were cordial but there were many concerns this Thursday evening in the room of the cultural centre which welcomed the elected representatives of Normandy and Ile-de-France to present the next steps and recall the orientations of the new Paris-Normandy line project (LNPN). Initiated in 2009, it aims to "provide the Seine Valley with an efficient rail link on the Paris-Mantes-Rouen-Le Havre axis and to complete it with a section to Caen and Cherbourg." The promise: to desaturate the network and gain speed by allowing trains to travel at 220 km/h compared to 100 to 150 km/h today on Nomad trains.
Read alsoThe SNCF line between Paris and Normandy, a point of tension between two regions with opposing priorities
To date, the future rail link has been divided into three stages, detailed by Didier Roblès, project director at SNCF réseau: priority 1, with service expected by 2035, for the Paris/Mantes-la-Jolie and Rouen/Barentin section, with the construction of a new station in Rouen Saint-Sever, for passengers to and from Le Havre; Priority 2 with commissioning after 2040 for the sections between Mantes-la-Jolie and Évreux and between Barentin and Yvetot; and Priority 3, with a timeframe for commissioning after 2050, with the creation of a new station in Évreux and the creation of a Y-shaped link between Rouen, Évreux and Bernay.
Desaturate the network
"Priority has been given to the sections that make it possible to desaturate the network," says the project director, focusing both on reduced journey times for trains that can travel faster, and also by allowing "less to suffer from the technical hazards that, today, slow down the entire network".
"Currently, we have a line that has a lot of safety flaws, which is regularly blocked at the slightest gust of wind or accident," said the prefect of the Eure department, Simon Babre. "We have trains that are stuck in bottlenecks that we don't know how to evacuate. The solution is to evacuate travellers by land. »
This project, which provides for the creation of new sections and the modification of existing tracks to allow trains to approach certain curves at higher speeds, should allow a greater volume of trains, both passenger and freight, but above all save 5 minutes for journeys between Paris Saint-Lazare and Mantes-la-Jolie, 16 minutes between Paris and Évreux, 20 minutes between Paris and Rouen, 25 minutes between Paris and Caen and 37 minutes between Paris and Le Havre, for an estimated journey time of 1 hour 33 minutes compared to 2 hours 11 minutes in 2017.
"It's expensive a minute"
However, and this is one of the main protests of the elected representatives present on Thursday, for these precious minutes saved, the bill is heavy. In 2016, the project valued the work of the section in priority 1 at €4.3 billion. For Section 2, the work presented is now estimated at more than €1.3 billion. "It's expensive a minute," says one person in the room.
The elected representatives of Normandy and Ile-de-France gathered in Pacy-sur-Eure in the presence of the prefect of Eure and SNCF Réseau expressed their concerns about the orientations of the LNPN route. LP/Julie Guesdon
"At the moment, life is hard for everyone," says Jocelyne Ridard, mayor of Caillouet-Orgeville in the Eure department, one of the municipalities along the route of the LNPN. "You're talking about billions like us, we're talking about a €10 note that's in our pocket." The elected official is also alarmed by the land needed for these new infrastructures: "For two or three minutes, we will lose 160 hectares of land. If our young people build, are we going to come and tear down their houses afterwards? »
With a route defined on a strip of about 3 km wide, the route of the priority 1 zones is still "too loose", explains SNCF Réseau, which will resume public consultations and studies this winter 2023-2024 in order to tighten up the project. But in these areas, especially where land costs could rise, "land management schemes" could be applied. Understand a freeze on real estate projects over areas wider than the final route.
"Investors will flee our territories"
Again, it squeaks. "Investors will flee our territories so as not to take the risk of having a line that will freeze their projects," warns Cécile Zammit-Popescu, mayor of Meulan-en-Yvelines and president of the Greater Paris Seine et Oise Urban Community. The elected official deplores this upcoming freeze on projects to "preserve the future": "The prefects of the departments are preparing to sign the decrees of consideration that will freeze all our territories. We have beams that pass through the middle of villages, that block school projects, a clinic... These projects concern a third of the Yvelines department, but half of the beneficiaries of the RSA. However, we need attractiveness to get out of this situation. »
"If the route is chosen between Merey and Gadencourt, almost a third of the commune will be razed," adds Romain Bourgine, first deputy mayor of the municipality of Merey. "The impression we have as a municipality on the route is that a project is being imposed on us that is considered to be in the public interest and that we have no recourse." "We are planning several alternative solutions on the route," replies Didier Roblès. The LNPN project director is reassuring: "a public inquiry is planned for 2026, so you have recourse."