Metropolitan RER: between desire and reality

dTo announce the role of the place a “Great National Ambition”. In a video published on YouTube on Sunday, November 27, Emmanuel Macron called “Development of the RER network in ten French cities”thereby surprising the government and the main stakeholder, SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou.

Unexpectedly, the decision is all the more surprising because the President of the Republic did not bother with the details. project music. “It’s a big goal for the ecology, the economy, the quality of life.” He was satisfied with the summary of the head of state, who after ten seconds commits to regional planning for the next ten years.

If the state’s top-level course is unprecedented, the idea of ​​developing regional express networks in major cities is not new. This is in line with the spirit of the 2019 Mobility Orientation Law, while some fifteen regional presidents requested in a column published the world launch “Metropolitan RERs”.

The difficulty is to create a network of trains that can cross the conurbation without changing stations, with very close tempos, large time amplitudes and tickets that allow the train and the urban network of subways, trams and buses to run indiscriminately. The concept draws enthusiasm from local elected officials, who are likely to be concerned until an angry subject emerges: Who will pay the tax and how?

The ongoing controversy over the funding of the Ile-de-France RER illustrates the complexity of the subject. Before duplicating the model across regions, it is undoubtedly necessary to hold each actor accountable.

Target funding

As for the mobility orientation law, it is accompanied by a multi-year budgetary effort of 17 billion euros, which must be almost doubled to make the presidential course one day possible. This “New Rail Deal” will be added to other similar health, education and justice issues in the over-indebted country.

There is no shortage of arguments in favor of the railway. In a recent note, economist Jean Pisani-Ferri explained that the ecological transition will only be successful if we invest massively in decarbonizing the economy. while transport accounts for 31% of CO emissions₂The sector is a necessary lever to achieve this.

Electrification of the car park will take time. Investing in the train is a crucial step towards carbon neutrality goals. Moreover, at a time when metropolitan low emission zones (ZFE) are proliferating, this new generation of RER will be an effective tool to prevent them from becoming zones of high social exclusion.

Finding money is not insurmountable. Billions of euros are spent on cars in France. It’s time to switch them to low-carbon modes of transport. Fuel taxes can also be helpful in financing the train.

So far, there has been no political will to make this change. However, now the placement of the planets seems favorable. The current Minister of Transport is confident in the project. The Prime Minister, the former CEO of RATP, knows this issue from the inside. Missing presidential impulses that deserved better than a roundabout response to a YouTube video.