Three "project companies" created for new railway projects

The three establishments, the Company of the New Line Provence-Côte d'Azur, the Company of the Great South-West Project and the Company of the New Line Montpellier-Perpignan, should be created "before the summer", according to Matignon.

Led by local authorities, they will above all have to carry their participation – 40% of the announced bill – in these projects, which may be provided by local taxation.

These project companies will also be able to provide material and human support to the contracting authority - in this case SNCF Réseau -, play an expert role with the steering committee bringing together all the funders, and support local authorities in the enhancement of new stations.

For the new Provence-Côte d'Azur line, the first step, by 2035, is to relieve the rail junctions of Marseille -with a tunnel under the city--, Toulon and Nice, for 3,5 Billions of Euro's.

The Grand Projet du Sud-Ouest plans to increase the capacity of the current lines south of Bordeaux and north of Toulouse by 2032, then to connect these two cities with a new line. There are 10,3 billion euros. A second branch should later join Dax, towards the Basque Country and Spain.

Finally, the new Montpellier-Perpignan line must, as its name suggests, connect these two cities by doubling the classic line, with a first stage from Montpellier to Béziers "by 2030", estimated at 2 billion euros.

The creation of these project companies was made possible by the Mobility Orientation Law (LOM) of 2019. In all three cases, the State must provide 40% of the investment and the local authorities 40%, the 20 remaining % being requested from Europe.

"These local public establishments will allow us to collectively finance these infrastructures - new lines and improvements to existing lines - which are resolutely essential for daily trains, for Occitanie and the south of France more broadly", welcomed the president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga in a press release.