Elisabeth Borne defends a 100 billion euro plan for rail by 2040

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne is due to announce on Friday February 24 a plan of 100 billion euros by 2040 for rail transport, the first concretization of which will be the launch of “metropolitan RERs” in major French cities, said the entourage. of the Prime Minister, Thursday evening.

This amount, which corresponds to the estimate of needs launched by the CEO of SNCF Jean-Pierre Farandou, will not be entirely provided by the State, but will have to be shared by all the stakeholders, communities, operators and investors, specified the entourage of the Prime Minister Thursday evening.

Elisabeth Borne must launch this “new railway deal” by receiving a report from the Infrastructure Orientation Council (COI), a college made up of elected officials and experts responsible for sorting out the various projects, whether rail, road or river. The Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, welcomed on Twitter this “essential effort for the rail network”.

Focus on road rehabilitation

The government intends to base itself, among the COI proposals, on a so-called scenario “ecological planning”, according to Matignon. This moves away from the current budgetary framework to add investments judged “the most relevant to facilitate modal shift (from road to public transport) and decarbonization”.

Giving priority to the modernization of the rail network and daily transport, the scenario also wants to emphasize the renovation of roads and waterways, but excludes the rapid realization of “Structuring projects eagerly awaited by some, (…) road or motorway”according to a near-final version published by the Context news site in January.