Opponents of the Southwest high-speed rail line call for work to be halted near Bordeaux

Several environmental associations challenged the prefectural authorization issued for railway developments south of Bordeaux (AFSB) on Friday morning before the interim relief judge of the Bordeaux administrative court, prior to the construction of the Bordeaux-Toulouse and Bordeaux-Dax high-speed lines.

The decision was postponed until next week.

Pointing to "imminent and irreversible damage to the environment," these associations denounced a "fragmentation of the habitat" of the European mink, a protected species.

"It's an existing infrastructure that we're expanding. The argument about fragmentation is difficult to understand," replied Pascale Pessoa, lawyer for SNCF Réseau.

"The impacts are under control," added the prefecture representative, emphasizing "the public interest of the project" to decarbonize transport and develop the region.

SNCF Réseau has assured that a delay in the work of 12 to 18 months would result in additional costs of EUR 120 to 160 million and a postponement of the project of two to three years.

"This suspension will cause losses, but is it better to cut off the arm now or the entire body in a few months if the case is overturned on the merits?" asked Caroline Facelina-Tabard, one of the associations' lawyers.

She mentioned "the too late cessation of work on the A69", a project halted by the administrative courts at the end of February, before stating several figures on the "trauma" of this Toulouse-Castres motorway construction site.

"We are not at all in this case, can we return to the file?" the president intervened.

Estimated to cost €2020 billion in 14, the LGV Sud-Ouest is expected to connect Toulouse to Paris in 2032 hours and 3 minutes by 10, saving an hour on the current route. A branch line is expected to connect Dax to Bordeaux in 20 minutes and, one day, provide direct links with Spain.

For its promoters, including the socialist regional presidents Alain Rousset (Nouvelle-Aquitaine) and Carole Delga (Occitanie), this "investment for the century" would make it possible to "take off the road" the 10.000 trucks that come back from Spain each day, by freeing up existing lines for freight.

Opponents - local elected officials, residents, foresters and winegrowers - denounce the project as "deadly" for the environment and demand the renovation of existing lines.