Opponents of a high-speed rail line in south-west France hope construction could be stopped because of its environmental impact, after courts halted a motorway project for similar reasons.
The €14billion Grand Projet Sud-Ouest (GPSO) will see a high-speed rail line (ligne à grande vitesse – LGV) link Bordeaux, Toulouse and Dax.
It will involve 222km of new track between Toulouse and Bordeaux and 160km of new track between Bordeaux and Dax, as well as three new stations in Mont-de-Marsan, Agen and Montauban.
Work began close to Toulouse in May 2024.
Biodiversity concerns
Critics, among them environmentalists, farmers, left-wing MPs and some rural mayors, have said the project will have a devastating impact on the biodiversity of the area and claim there is no major public interest in the new line.
The construction will affect 10 Natura 2000 sites, a network of protected areas covering some of Europe’s most threatened and valuable species, according to Amis de la Terre (Friends of the Earth). This includes the forêt du Ciron, a 43,000-year-old beech forest said to be the oldest in France.
The LGV Non Merci group, which brings together several associations opposed to the project, has called it “an economic aberration”.
Supporters say it will improve public transport links on a regional, national and European level, and be good for the environment by offering an alternative to car journeys. It will also free up the existing lines for rail freight, which could remove thousands of trucks from the roads that currently travel daily between Spain and France.
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The line will link Bordeaux and Toulouse in just one hour, down from the current two, and Toulouse and Paris in three hours and 10 minutes, an hour less than the current travel time, by 2032. It will also eventually provide a direct connection with Spain.
Opponents of the LGV are hoping courts will stop the construction, as they did earlier this year with the half-built A69 motorway in south-west France.
'Illegal' A69 project halted
In February, the Toulouse administrative court ruled the A69 was “illegal” and did not justify the environmental damage it would cause. It marked the first time an administrative court had stopped work on a motorway project for environmental reasons.
“Amis de la Terre sees this ruling as an encouragement to continue the fight against the construction of the Bordeaux-Toulouse, Bordeaux-Dax and Toulouse-Dax high-speed lines,” Jean Olivier, spokesperson for Les Amis de la Terre de Midi-Pyrénées, told The Connexion.
“The parallels with the A69 are many. This project is widely contested by the local population, including local elected representatives.”
Amis de la Terre is one of the four environmental organisations to have filed an appeal against construction of the LGV.
A hearing could take place in Toulouse administrative court in July or September to examine the legality of the project and its environmental permit on the Toulouse side.
An initial emergency appeal to stop work on the line south of Bordeaux was dismissed by Bordeaux’s administrative court on April 10.
Opponents had cited the “imminent nature and irreversible damage to the environment”.
The court ruled there was “no proven urgency” in halting the works, which it said would not cause “irreversible damage” to the environment.
The Societé du Grand Projet du Sud-Ouest (SGPSO), which brings together the local authorities that are part-financing of the project, welcomed the ruling, saying: “Delaying the project would penalise tens of thousands of users in their daily movement, allow cars to congest the city and pollute the air, and would generate significant additional costs for a 100% public project.”
Environmental activists are undeterred by the April ruling and are looking ahead to their other appeals.
A Gironde parliamentary group, opposed to the project, was formed in late 2024, and called on Prime Minister François Bayrou to impose a “moratorium” on the project, which it deemed “costly, unnecessary and destructive”.
Mr Olivier, of Les Amis de la Terre, said improving existing train lines, instead of building a new high-speed line, could encourage people to use public transport “without destroying remarkable ecosystems”.
The political challenge, he said, “is to reduce greenhouse gases without exacerbating the biodiversity crisis”.
Despite local opposition, the project has received public support in France, with 78% of people in favour, according to a 2024 poll. They said the project would bring benefits to both the environment (because of fewer car journeys) and the economy.
Residents of 2,340 towns in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie regions are already paying a special tax to help finance the Grand Projet Sud-Ouest high-speed rail line linking Bordeaux, Toulouse and Dax.
Some 40% of the money for the controversial project is being provided by the government, 40% by local authorities in Occitanie and Nouvelle Aquitaine, and 20% by the European Union.
The tax has been levied on residents of towns within 60 minutes by car from a station on the route as a taxe spéciale d'équipement (special equipment tax) that aims to raise €29.5million per year.
It came into force in 2023 and will be levied for the next 40 years. It affect all homeowners, including second-home owners, who pay property tax.
How much homeowners pay depends on the total amount of property tax, so can generally range from a couple of euros to more than €10. It may be revalued each year in line with changes in the cost of living.
Some locals, who noticed the tax in the small print of their return, have refused to pay.
