Green light for the preparatory work on the LGV from the southwest to the south of Bordeaux

"This decision constitutes the final stage of the environmental authorisation process launched at the end of January 2023. It will enable SNCF Réseau, the project owner, to start work on the Bordeaux-Toulouse rail link as part of the Grand Projet ferroviaire du Sud-Ouest (GPSO)," the prefecture said in a press release.

These railway developments aim in particular to create a third track and remove six level crossings over a distance of 12 kilometres.

Similar work began north of Toulouse last May.

The LGV aims to connect Toulouse to Paris in three hours and ten minutes by 2032, saving an hour on the current route. A branch line crossing the east of the Landes forest should connect Dax to Bordeaux in twenty minutes less and, one day, allow direct connections with Spain.

The project should cost at least 14,3 billion euros, financed by the State, local authorities and the European Union.

The LGV is widely supported by communities in Occitanie, but in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the project - born in the 1990s and relaunched since 2020 - has aroused long-standing and protean opposition, mixing local elected officials and parliamentarians, residents, foresters and winegrowers.

Last Saturday, a thousand protesters mobilized in Gironde to denounce what they called a "major useless" and "deadly" project, which they said would lead to the artificialization of around 5.000 hectares. They preferred the renovation of existing lines to develop "daily trains".