Supervisory Board

Carole Delga, President of the Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée Region and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Société du Grand Projet du Sud-Ouest (SGPSO), Alain Rousset, President of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, in the presence of the representative of the GPSO coordinating prefect, brought together the partners of the new line in Toulouse on Monday June 17.

At the SGPSO Supervisory Board meeting, Alain Rousset was elected Chairman of this public establishment. He succeeds Carole Delga for the next two years, in line with the principle of rotation and balanced governance between the two regions.

In the same spirit, Xavier Fortinon, President of the Landes département, and Jean-Luc Moudenc, President of Toulouse Métropole, were elected vice-presidents for the next two years. They succeed Sébastien Vincini, President of the Haute-Garonne département, and Christine Bost, President of Bordeaux Métropole.

Everyone was delighted with the first two years of the SGPSO's existence, as the organization has become more structured and is now leading the partnership to bring the project to fruition.

Carole Delga and Alain Rousset, together with their partners, were delighted to see the start of work on the new line, with the commencement of the railway improvements to the north of Toulouse last May.

The public inquiry for the environmental authorization of the rail developments south of Bordeaux will take place between June 24 and July 23, 2024, and may enable the Prefect of Gironde to authorize the start of construction in September.

The partners were also able to review progress on all aspects of the new line, its development and its schedule. Prof. Carlo Secchi, coordinator of the Atlantic transport corridor for Europe and the institution's representative on the SGPSO, presented the future of the European Interconnection Mechanism (EIM) regulation, the European Union's financing instrument for targeted investment in transport infrastructure.

Carole Delga, President of the Occitanie Region and Chairwoman of the Société du GPSO (until June 17), declared that “because our region is not connected to the European high-speed network, because Toulouse has been waiting 30 years for the LGV, because trains are the least polluting means of transport and because it is urgent to develop the railways, we have collectively led the fight for the new Toulouse-Bordeaux-Dax line. This collective effort led to a first victory: the creation 2 years ago of the Société du Grand Projet du Sud-Ouest, which I had the honor of chairing. The governance of the Établissement public has been established and is operational, partnership and institutional relations have been established and are fruitful, the SGPSO team has been formed and the structure is operational, and the GPSO has now become a reality. Naturally, I have every confidence in Alain Rousset's ability to preside over the SGPSO for the next two years! It's now up to all of us to make a success of what is the biggest public investment of the century in south-west France and Europe. We know that politics is a long-term process, and the new line bears witness to this, providing our regions with improved, sustainable services for both long-distance and everyday trains.

“First and foremost, I would like to pay tribute to Carole Delga's presidency of the SGPSO, which has enabled the public institution to establish itself as the recognized interlocutor and driving force of the partnership on behalf of local authorities in the South-West. I'd like to thank her for passing on a fine tool that will enable us to succeed in the future. Starting with the Aménagements Ferroviaires au Sud de Bordeaux project, for which the public inquiry for environmental authorization will begin in a few days' time. I'd like to take this opportunity to reiterate that this project is essential for the circulation of everyday trains, both TERs and the future SERM. The line is saturated and we need to add more tracks to add more trains. In this way, we are addressing the issues of capacity, dynamic regional development and public objectives in terms of sustainable development, within a framework of very high standards on the part of our partners in terms of ecological impact in particular. Finally, I would like to reiterate that the Toulouse-Bordeaux-Dax new line is a coherent, unified project, essential for linking the Atlantic and Mediterranean axes, and for cross-border links with the Iberian peninsula from and to Bordeaux and from and to Toulouse, as well as with the rest of France and Europe. In particular, for the sake of Europe and our Spanish neighbors, and to save costs, we must get the section to Dax into service by 2034,” declared Alain Rousset, President of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region and Chairman of the Société du GPSO (as of June 18).

 

Carlo Secchi, European Coordinator for the Atlantic European Transport Corridor, underlined “the importance of the Établissement Public's governance, which has enabled us to develop high-quality cooperation with the European Commission over the past two years. He also praised the remarkable work of Carole Delga and Alain Rousset, underlining their commitment to the GPSO project, which is also crucial to the connectivity of the Iberian Peninsula within the European Union. He expressed his gratitude for their commitment to connecting Toulouse to Bordeaux by 2032 and Toulouse and Bordeaux to Dax by 2034, bringing these two metropolises closer to Madrid, with an eventual journey time of around 5 hours”.