Is an hour saved to go from Toulouse to Paris by train worth the artificialization of more than 3,000 hectares of land and an investment estimated in 2020 at 14 billion euros of public money? The answer is “no”, the opponents of the Bordeaux-Toulouse/Dax high-speed line project sang in unison this Saturday, September 23.
Is an hour saved to go from Toulouse to Paris by train worth the artificialization of more than 3,000 hectares of land and an investment estimated in 2020 at 14 billion euros of public money? The answer is “no”, the opponents of the Bordeaux-Toulouse/Dax high-speed line project sang in unison this Saturday, September 23.
Gathered in Balizac, in South Gironde, a village promised to be cut in two by the rails and condemned to watch trains pass by at more than 300 km/h, some 300 demonstrators took part in the Sarabande. This large festive caravan leaving Friday September 22 evening from Bordeaux will join Bernos-Beaulac this Sunday. With the common thread, the Ciron valley, a natural sanctuary where 17 concrete viaducts will be built above the river and its tributaries to pass the train.
The very critical opinion on the project delivered at the beginning of September by the Environmental Authority boosted the morale of the troops. Even if all legal recourses have been lifted, opponents do not admit defeat and pray that Europe will not pay the 2.8 billion euros promised for financing.
Marina Dutruy came from Bordeaux. “The Ciron valley is a space for healing and escape. I am outraged by this pharaonic project. We wanted a metropolis with 1 million inhabitants, but today we can no longer move around, nothing has been anticipated. The priority is the daily trains, no one cares about saving a few tens of minutes to go to Toulouse. »
“We wanted a metropolis with 1 million inhabitants, but today we can no longer move around, nothing has been anticipated”
Large detailed maps of the future route are on display. They show the reality of a forest territory that is open today and that tomorrow will be fenced. This is the price of “the praise of speed” that opponents criticize. “The SNCF will offer slower but cheaper trains between Bordeaux and Paris, but for the president of Nouvelle-Aquitaine Alain Rousset and the president of Occitanie Carole Delga, we must go quickly. For what ? We do not know. But it has to be quick. This is the heart of their project”, single Renaud Antunes, from the Stop LGV Bordeaux-Métropole collective.
“The wind is turning”
“We don’t pit metropolises against rural areas. This is why the Sarabande left Bordeaux. Everyone is concerned by this project which makes no sense,” says Pauline Dupouy, one of the spokespersons for the LGV Nina collective (Neither here nor elsewhere). For a year and a half, things have been moving, we are building links all along the route, the elected officials are there. We feel that the wind is turning. Large, unnecessary projects are receiving more and more media attention. »
Several elected officials also spoke. Mayors, but also EELV regional councilor Christine Seguineau as well as LFI deputy Loïc Prudhomme. The mayor of Bernos-Beaulac promises not to stop the fight “as long as the bulldozers are not in front of her town hall”.
A little aside, Aurélie Malard and Maxime Aguirre listen. They are neighbors in Balizac. If the LGV goes ahead, they will be cut off from the town and have a front-row seat to hear the train go by. “When we moved in, we thought the project would no longer be done. »
