“Most of the work on the CDG Express must be concentrated in 2023 before the Olympics “, indicated, Thursday, Île-de-France Mobilités, while the opening of this fast train supposed to link Paris to Roissy airport is postponed for a year, at the end of 2026. Undermined by the Covid-19 and legal twists and turns, a new work schedule has been announced. Since then, two scenarios had been constructed : the first postponed the bulk of the work after the Olympic Games in 2024, for an opening of the structure around 2028, the second concentrates the sites in 2023, with an objective of commissioning at the end of 2025. The latter was chosen.
Future disruptions to public transport disputed
This work, which will cause disruptions in particular on the RER B and all the Transilien lines of the north axis, provoke the anger of some elected officials. Stephane Troussel, president of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis was indignant in a press release published on Thursday: “Regular closure of the RER B, need to reduce the peak hour supply per period by half on the RER B, or even up to two thirds on the RER D, impossibility of operating certain branches of the H and K lines of the Transilien … All this to put into service as quickly as possible a transport project that will simply cross Seine-Saint-Denis without ever stopping there! “.
“It is a passage in force of the government”
Gregory of Lasteyrie, president of the Paris-Saclay agglomeration, mayor of Palaiseau (Essonne) declared to AFP: “This is a strong move by the government, which is sacrificing 1.6 million daily transport passengers. What SNCF Réseau was asked to do is study scenarios which make it possible not to impact daily transport “.
Same story on the side of user associations. Association More Trains regretted on Twitter: “Users once again victims of the CDG Express with a heavier work schedule which will further increase the galleys. The State promises priority to daily trains but do the opposite. “
The CDG Express is also disputed since a long time. Already in December 2019, whenElisabeth Borne, former Minister of Transport, confirmed its construction, a hundred elected officials from Île-de-France had sent a letter to the regional prefect to ask the authorities “to give up as soon as possible” the project.