14 billion euros. This is at least the sum that will need to be raised to build the high-speed rail lines which must connect Bordeaux to Toulouse and Dax from 2032. The amount, already colossal at a time of restriction of public spending, could even reach higher heights since the estimate made here dates from 2020, before the inflationary surge caused by the war in Ukraine.
In this envelope, the State and the communities have committed up to 40% each, or 5.6 billion euros on both sides. The remaining 20% will have to be contributed by the European Union via the transport allocation of the Connecting Europe Mechanism.
Communities in the lead
Local authorities began to pay their contributions in 2023. 74 million euros were thus mobilized, including 24 for the special equipment tax (TSE) applied to more than 2,300 municipalities. A tax that appears on taxpayers’ tax notices and amounts to a few euros per household. This must be applied for 40 years but is the subject of an appeal before the courts and is contested by residents, particularly in southern Gironde.
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From 2024, the annual contribution of South-West communities is increased to 160 million euros (including 60 from the TSE). The first revenues for the SGPSO, the project company responsible for collecting the subsidies, which allow it to finance the start-up of the machine and the updating of the environmental and technical studies. These are expected by the end of the year.
For the rest, it is “a funding bump from 2027” which awaits the stakeholders of the operation, in the words of Guy Kauffman, the president of the project company. He details: “ The budget allows us to meet current expenses, on the one hand the start of the AFSB/AFNT project [les aménagements ferroviaires au sud de Bordeaux et nord de Toulouse, ndlr]and on the other hand the studies and land acquisitions on the new line “. The first loans over 40 years should be taken out in 2025, he also indicates.
Europe’s participation will be decided in 2027
20% of the budget is at stake here. But nothing will be granted for three years, at best. The European Commission has in fact released this year the last wave of financing from the Connecting Europe Facility, the fund which supports transnational transport projects, for the period 2021-2027.
Europe thus paid 19.5 million euros last July to help finance the technical studies of new routes. This brings the European participation to nearly 80 million euros. Still a long way from the 2.8 billion estimated by the financing plan, which is particularly dependent on political hazards.
« The question is being played out during discussions around the next multiannual European budget. Negotiations have already started but will officially begin next year to prepare for the next MIE », Explained Monday, during a press point dedicated to the GPSO, Carlo Secchi, coordinator of the trans-European transport network. If the sum paid for the moment is lower than that requested by the GPSO company, this remains a very important message on the political level: it was necessary to be very selective and the commission retained that the GPSO is very important from the point of view of European view “, he reassured. There is still no guarantee that Europe will decide to finance the Bordeaux-Toulouse section, the cross-border interest of which is less highlighted than Bordeaux-Dax. The first must be delivered in 2032, the second from 2037, hope the project leaders.
Future studies
Far from being a novelty in land development plans, the GPSO is an idea that dates back several decades. The declaration of public utility dates from 2016, the latest studies from 2014 and the first public debates date back to 2005.
« All traffic studies, passenger and freight, will be updated to be able to be presented at the end of the year or the beginning of 2025. We are redoing the project studies from top to bottom », promised Christophe Huau, the director of the GPSO agency, to La Tribune in June. The demographic growth in the South-West departments, the arrival of metropolitan regional express services and the objectives of freight recovery will be taken into account. If everything is on track, work on the new Bordeaux-Toulouse line should take place between 2027 and 2032. Work on the railway developments south of Bordeaux should begin in the coming weeks. “The GPSO is no longer a project but a construction site for several months already. The new South-West line is under construction »welcomes Alain Rousset, president of the project company and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region.
SNCF asked to justify the interest of railway developments south of Bordeaux
