Poitou-Charentes president comes out against LGV Poitiers-Limoges project

Description:

In an open letter published this week, president of the Poitou-Charentes region Ségolène Royal has openly criticised the LGV Poitiers-Limoges high speed rail project, which aims to link the two regional capitals directly by 2016.

She criticises the RFF (French rail network) for refusing to take part in a recent public debate, and reveals plans to write to the transport minister to outline the objections raised by local people.

The former presidential candidate points out that she is firmly behind current projects to improve and modernise the regional railway (TER) which links the two cities, as the improvements will both shorten journey times and improve services to intermediate towns such as Montmorillon.

The main thrust of the letter demands:

• A return to public consultation, with participation from both the state and the RFF. The original public consultations were carried out long ago, at a time when the local population were ill-informed of the full impact of the project.

• Further commercial studies to be undertaken, to compare the project with other alternative options such as the POLT (Paris-Orleans-Limoges-Toulouse), an option favoured by opponents of the current plan. The current project fails to demonstrate that it is commercially viable.

• Assurances that the plan will not affect TER services through Poitiers.

• That the state bear the cost of the LGV project, after the region has already been held to ransom over the LGV Sud Europe Atlantique project, that will quicken journey times between Paris and Bordeaux. The state threatened to exclude Poitiers and Chatellerault from the plan if funds were not provided by the region.

The letter will come as a boost to opponents of the project, who have become more vocal in recent months.  Go-slow protests were held recently on the roads from Poitiers and Limoges meeting in Bellac, and new associations have been formed to fight the plans, which will disrupt the lives of rural communities.

Like this story? Why not use our RSS feed and receive updates as soon as they are posted? Or join us as a member and receive a monthly newsletter.

Check out Guide2PoitouCharentes for Property in Poitou Charentes, Events, News, Classifieds, Places to Stay, Poitou Charentes Attractions and Poitou Charente Businesses.