Elisabeth Borne launches a 100 billion euro rail plan by 2040

"The State wishes to commit, alongside the SNCF, the European Union and local authorities, to achieve a 'new railway deal', in the order of 100 billion euros by 2040", she said when she received a report from the Infrastructure Orientation Council (COI), a college made up of elected officials and experts responsible for working on the issue.

This amount corresponds to the estimate of the needs launched by the CEO of the SNCF Jean-Pierre Farandou, who envisaged this expenditure over fifteen years.

Concretely, the State will start by adding 1,5 billion euros per year to current budgets by the end of the five-year term to regenerate and start modernizing the railways.

"We must invest in the development of the network", indicated Ms. Borne. "Beyond the continuation of new line projects initiated and the relaunch of night trains, this will involve the deployment of metropolitan RERs", she added.

The Société du Grand Paris (SGP), which is currently building the Grand Paris metro around the capital, must work in tandem with SNCF Réseau to design these suburban links around a dozen major provincial agglomerations.

She "will put her skills at the service of the regions and will start discussions with the local executives concerned in March to determine the timetable, the operational and financing methods", indicated the head of government.

The government intends to take as a basis, among the proposals of the IOC, a so-called "ecological planning" scenario.

This moves away from the current budget framework to add investments deemed "the most relevant to facilitate modal shift (from road to public transport, editor's note) 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 invites us to think twice before building new roads.

In March, the government intends to launch discussions with the regions and partners concerned, in particular within the framework of the negotiations of the State-region plan contracts (CPER), in order to have a precise planning of transport infrastructure investments in June.