High-speed rail line between Bordeaux and Toulouse: local authorities oppose public-private financing

The local authorities involved in the Bordeaux-Toulouse high-speed rail project reiterated on Wednesday, January 21, their preference for fully public funding, while a former minister recently raised the possibility of partly private funding.

At a press conference, the Société du grand projet ferroviaire du Sud-Ouest (SGPSO) presented the results of two studies commissioned to independent firms, Deloitte and FCL Gérer la Cité, comparing the assumptions of an exclusively public undertaking and a public-private partnership (PPP) undertaking.

For the SGPSO, a PPP would notably delay the commissioning of the high-speed rail line (LGV) by 18 to 24 months earlier.

"Using a public-private partnership would be a losing choice and a disregard for entire populations," said Jean-Luc Gibelin, vice-president of the Occitanie region, in charge of modes of transport.

"Solidarity must come into play, because our territories have been suffering from chronic underinvestment for fifty years," he added.

These studies were based on a figure of €14 billion, included in the financing plan signed in 2022, but contested by the LGV Non Merci collective. These opponents say that the budget was estimated in 2020 and that the expenses incurred since the start of construction have already exceeded the initial budget for this phase of work by 10%.

Former Transport Minister and current president of the France Ambition Transports conference, Dominique Bussereau, argued in an interview with the newspaper Sud-Ouest for opening the project to private capital. "If we want to move forward with these projects, we will have to use public-private partnerships (PPPs)," he asserted, adding: "without the involvement of private investors, we won't succeed."

"To oppose this structuring project with the argument of budgetary constraints to justify a PPP is nonsense," retorted the president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, in a statement on Wednesday, believing that such public-private financing "would result in an enormous additional cost."

"Backing down on this project would be a major political and climate mistake," she fumed.

The new South-West line (LNSO) is scheduled to connect Toulouse to Paris in three hours and ten minutes by 2032, saving an hour on the current route. A branch line will link Dax to Bordeaux in 20 minutes less than the current journey time and, eventually, allow for direct connections to Spain.