The public inquiry will only end on February 28, but concerns are already there for around twenty owners of the Saint-André district in the northern districts of Marseille. This district, crossed by the SNCF tracks used by the RER, TGV and freight trains, is on the route of the new Provence Côte d’Azur line.
They’re going to destroy our houses, and I don’t want to (Noah, 9 years old)
“We received a letter a few days before the start of the public inquiry in mid-December asking us to get closer to the SNCF, 23 houses are threatened with expropriation“explains Elisabeth Pellicio, president of the Neighborhood Interest Committee.
In this letter, the SNCF does not mention any threat of expropriation but that was enough to worry the residents: “I’ve been living here for 50 years, I’m surrounded by my daughter and my grandchildren, I feel good here, I don’t want to be alone” loose, with a few tears, Marie, 81 years old.
Her house is located on the edge of the railway line, she is afraid of the future. His daughter, who also owns a house, is not getting angry: “it is not a project for the inhabitants of the northern districts. We will watch the trains pass. _Those who won’t have to leave will go through hell_, TER traffic will be doubled in the coming years“.
Here the project is on everyone’s lips. Even 9-year-old Noah knows: “I was born here, there are my cousins, we are always playing in the garden, they will destroy our houses, and I don’t want to“.
The hope of an alternative solution
Some owners have made up their minds. Danielle, 84, owns “Villa Sonia”, also on the edge of the rails: “it is one of the few traditional bastides that remain in the area. I spent 25 years of my life there to renovate the whole interior. What I want now is to sell to the SNCF, but _we still have to find an agreement on the price_.”
In this kind of case,sentimental value is very rarely taken into account” tempers Elisabeth Pellicio. “In the northern districts we were not born with a silver spoon in our mouths. We put all our sweat in these goods, we must respect it.”
This morning, Saturday morning, a citizen rally is planned on site. To denounce this project “which will save travelers only a quarter or half an hour” underlines a resident. The CIQ of Saint-André still has the hope, too, of changing the course of history: “we are going to make an alternative proposal, for the routes to pass elsewhere, we have to fight !” concludes Elisabeth Pellicio.
– Fabien LEDU