Jean CASTEX inaugurates Sunday the reopening of the line Epinal-Saint-Die after a heavy refraction of the infrastructure, which had been neglected for years.
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In the region, it is nicknamed “The Macron line”. This rail link, which serpent in the first Vosgeian foothills between Epinal and Saint-Die-des-Vosges, was closed since December 2018. It opens in great pomp on Sunday 12 December. It must be said that Emmanuel Macron had put pressure, early 2019, on the direction of SNCF so that the Renaissance of this line – a presidential promise – actually and quickly implemented.
m. Macron should not move to Saint-Die for the reopening ceremony, but the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, and the Minister of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebari, will realize the inaugural gesture in the presence of the President (Republicans) of the Region. Grand East, Jean Rottner. The latter did the revival of the train on his land a battlehorse. “It’s more than a symbol,” says the Edile. This is the result of a long-term approach of the region, which aims to reconchange the train. “
The line goes from five daily backwards on weekdays before closing at ten a day, including several direct ePinal-Saint-Die, “to propose a real alternative to the car,” says Rottner.
Lines threatened with disappearance
If the boss of the region has reasons to rejoice, the event is also a source of satisfaction for the government, which sees in this reopening a start of validation of its renovation strategy of small rail lines. The subject had become burning in 2018, when a report signed Jean-Cyril Spinetta on the state of the French rail system had suggested that the state disengage, for the benefit of the regions, 9,000 kilometers of small French rail lines (32 % of railways and 17% of travelers).
Sacrified for years to the policy of all TGVs, the “territory lines of the territory” had become a ball for the SNCF and were, partly, threatened with extinction. Before 2030, and except massive investment, 6,500 kilometers of ways were going to be assigned slowdowns for maintenance. Either three quarters of the small lines. Worse: 4,000 kilometers of this linear (14% of the total network) risked – and always risk – the pure and simple closure.
The Prime Minister then Edouard Philippe, had, however, refused the option of disengagement. A mission had been entrusted to the Prefect François Philizot, with the aim of proceeding with an inventory and to define a rescue strategy. After many procrastination, this policy was unveiled in February 2020: an effort of 6 billion euros of ten years investment and a division into three categories of the lines to be saved (outside 800 kilometers already regenerated). Thus, 1,400 kilometers of lines must be taken by the state, 5,800 kilometers, rehabilitated as part of a state-regional plan contract, and the last 1,000, completely entrusted to the regions.
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