Yes, but.
Her speech was expected: Valérie Pécresse, the president (Free!) of the Ile-de-France Region, gives her position on the new Paris-Normandy line project.
This railway project which should connect Paris to the Normandy region by 2040.
Elected officials from the Yvelines departmental council and the GPS&O urban community have just affirmed their hostility to the matter.
Long reluctant to visit Yvelines, the local elected official gave her agreement.
But under conditions.
The day after the steering committee devoted to the subject, she explained it.
Why change your position today?
VALERIE PECRESSE.
Public consultation should begin soon on this project.
The risk is that the State imposes constraints on us, where the line will cross, without us having our say.
With, at the end of the chain, a direct effect: the impossibility of building in numerous sectors of the north of Yvelines during the entire time that the project will last.
Whether it succeeds or not.
However, there is no question of the LNPN (Editor's note: high-speed line between Paris and Normandy.) freezing construction rights.
So I say yes, to have my say on what will be done in Yvelines.
But I set conditions.
What are they ?
First, I want the SNCF to carry out real studies on the possibility of burying this line between Morainvilliers and Guerville.
These are highly urbanized areas with extremely complex air passages to manage.
I'm not sure landfilling would cost much more.
So I want a serious study.
“I still want direct connections to Saint-Lazare from Yvelines stations”
Afterwards ?
It is not possible to agree that Normandy trains will no longer stop in the future at Mantes-la-Jolie, Bonnières-sur-Seine or Rosny-sur-Seine.
So I want, when Eole arrives (scheduled for 2026), there will still be direct services to Saint-Lazare from the Yvelin stations.
Finally, we must not take advantage of this line to put freight in place of passenger transport.
It is therefore necessary to launch a study relating to the bypass of Île-de-France, from the North, for the transport of goods.
And when I say the North, it’s not Val-d’Oise, eh!
It is beyond the Paris region.
You realize that studying takes time.
Are you going to have to set a deadline for them?
Yes of course.
I want a report by the end of the year.
With, I insist, real studies seriously carried out.
It will therefore necessarily be necessary to postpone public consultation on the LNPN.
We've been talking about this famous line for years.
Do you think it will eventually see the light of day?
Given the state of public finances, I must admit that I am not convinced by the State's capacity to find sufficient margins to finance such an expensive project!
I'm doubtful.