This Tuesday at the end of the morning, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, mayor of Rouen (Seine-Maritime) and president of the Rouen Normandy Metropolis, had an appointment in the office of the Minister for Transport, Patrice Vergriete. A “cordial” exchange according to the elected socialist “with a friend whom I have known since his election as mayor of Dunkirk and whom I appreciate”.
However, if certain subjects discussed (ZFE, New Paris-Normandy Line, Réseau Express Métropolitain, etc.) are rather unanimous (even if the financing of the last two is far from being completed), there is one which tenses up the debate public for many years: that of the eastern bypass of the Rouen metropolitan area, the A133-A134 link which connects the A28 to the A13. “I'm not the only one who will be received. The minister wants to hear from everyone on this subject and that is normal,” notes Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, a declared opponent of this project, after having been a supporter of it for a time. Faced with him, the Normandy region and the department of Seine-Maritime are supported by the majority of economic actors who have already written to the minister to launch a “solemn appeal” not to abandon them “in the face of this vital emergency”.
“The future is the train”
His predecessor, Clément Beaune, had promised to announce a list of arbitrations concerning motorway link projects in France. In Rouen, everyone hoped to be settled on the subject at the start of the year. But that was before the last reshuffle. “It is normal that as a new minister, he wishes to set his agenda and form his own idea on the issues,” assures the elected representative from Rouen who came to reaffirm the arguments which push him not to support, just like the Eure departmental council, the construction of a link that it describes as “anachronistic” estimated at almost a billion euros in 2015, “a figure well below what it would cost today” .
And for him two are on top of the pile: “The economic cost for the inhabitants who will have to pay between 8 and 9 euros to take these 40 km of motorways. A price which takes into account the increase in prices since 2015 and which will obviously dissuade them from doing so.” And the choice to “bank on rail connections to develop the mobility of tomorrow. And not on a project whose environmental cost, in terms of destruction of agricultural land and which generates an additional 50,000 tonnes of CO2, is not sustainable.”
Will Nicolas Mayer Rossignol have found an attentive ear from a minister who is seeking a very hypothetical consensus on this issue? “I believe I have been heard, even if no announcement is planned immediately. But my position is clear: there are trade-offs to be made. It is illusory to believe that we can finance everything. We cannot spend a billion for the bypass, a billion for the new station, several billion for the LNPN or even the metropolitan RER in such a tense economic context. Being elected means making choices. And for us, it is clear: the future of the Rouen metropolis is the train.”