Emmanuel Macron announces the objective of “developing an RER network in the ten main French cities”

The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, announced on Sunday November 27 his objective of developing RER-type daily rail transport in ten French cities in order to promote ecological transition.

“To fulfill our ecological ambition, I want us to have a great national ambition: that there be in ten major cities, ten major French cities, to develop a network of RER, urban trains. It is to say, basically, that the RER is not only in Paris. In the 10 main French cities, where there is thrombosis, where there is too much traffic, where travel is complicated, we must have a real urban transport strategy and this is a great objective for ecology , economy, quality of life, he stated in a posted sequence on Youtubein which he answers questions from Internet users about ecology.

The Regional Express Network (RER) is the dense network of regional trains circulating in Ile-de-France at a high rate. It has steadily expanded since the 1960s.” The RER is not only in Paris”, we pleaded Sunday evening in the presidential entourage, underlining the project of “to ensure that in the large French cities that are currently congested, people who have commuter journeys can do so without a car, by decarbonizing their journeys thanks to these metropolitan RERs”.

Read the forum (2020): Article reserved for our subscribers “Should French metropolises be equipped with RERs like Paris? »

The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, will be responsible for carrying out these major works, the same source indicated, and while “projects have started to emerge in the territories”. For the Elysée, “it’s about accelerating and prioritizing in 10 cities”, harbinger of one “great planning work”.

A master plan presented by SNCF Réseau in 2020

Bruno Gazeau, president of Fnaut (National Federation of Transport User Associations), said “very favorable” to the project, that it “find out”. The manager claims to have already proposed to the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, “a call for projects on metropolitan RERs, thus forcing metropolises and regions to agree”. “The budget of SNCF Réseau will have to be increased. Awaiting details.” he added, noting that the metropolises concerned would a priori be the largest of them: Lyon, Marseille, Strasbourg, Nantes, Lille, Toulouse…

“In general, we are in favor of the development of public transport”, reacted Jean-Sébastien Barrault, the president of the National Federation of Passenger Transport (FNTV), which deals with coaches: “the development of rail transport will inevitably generate the development of bus and coach networks, within the framework of the intermodality necessary for the proper functioning of transport networks”.

The socialist president of Occitanie, Carole Delga, also welcomed the initiative. “The regional presidents’ call for a railway ‘new deal’ has been heard”she estimated, insisting on achieving ” rapidly “ Has « concrete acts ».

Also read the analysis: Article reserved for our subscribers Vital but long neglected, the RER B has become hell for its users

The idea of ​​developing metropolitan RERs in regions is nothing new. In October 2020, SNCF Réseau had submitted to the government a master plan presenting a plan for the major railway nodes, at the request of Elisabeth Borne, then Minister of Transport. Objective of the plan: to develop new metropolitan services (“SEM” for metropolitan express services or “RER” for regional express network).

Concretely, Bordeaux Métropole has been thinking for some time now about a “metropolitan RER” with the help of the department in particular. The 2020 recovery plan thus provided an envelope to better prepare for the launch of these “RER” in Bordeaux, but also Lille or Strasbourg.

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