Suspended during the health crisis, the Mulhouse-Lille TGV, which serves Dijon and Roissy airport, has still not been restored by the SNCF. A line which elected officials and users are demanding to return as quickly as possible. But the SNCF still has no answer to give them.
Bertrand Lhote – Today at 6:06 p.m.
Will the Mulhouse-Lille TGV be definitively abolished on the altar of profitability? This is the fear of users and elected officials in Burgundy-Franche-Comté, who have been calling for the return of this high-speed line since the end of the health crisis.
A train which served Belfort, Besançon, Dijon, Montbard, Marne-la-Vallée/Disneyland or even Roissy airport. Until its suspension in 2020, when the SNCF experienced a drastic drop in attendance in the midst of Covid. At the time, this suspension was intended to be temporary. But three years later, the TGV linking the south of Alsace to the north of France is still not running. A situation that annoys elected officials. Like the mayor of Dijon, François Rebsamen, and his counterpart in Besançon, Anne Vignot. But also the president of the Côte-d’Or departmental council, François Sauvadet, and the president of the Doubs Department, Christine Bouquin. Four figures in regional politics who co-signed an open letter last week in which they speak of “deception on the back of Covid”.
“Restoring this service means investing in the future”
“This suspension is starting to last: it is profoundly harmful to the European, international, economic, academic, social and cultural attractiveness of our territories,” believes the quartet. “On the SNCF side, we swear that the business is not profitable. Nothing proves it and there are many questions. Certainly, the SNCF has financial imperatives. But is this argument the only one to take into account? Does the SNCF intend to soon suspend other lines that are popular with travelers, but considered to be in deficit even though the trains are full? Do strategic issues linked to ecology, attractiveness, tourism, regional planning and the needs of the population have so little weight? […] How is it possible to ignore the call of elected officials, economic and academic decision-makers and the population of our cities and departments which represent 1.2 million inhabitants? Restoring this service means investing in the future, creating opportunities for our citizens and preserving our environment. »
Hope for 2025?
There is also impatience among customers. Representative of the National Federation of Transport Users (FNAUT) in Burgundy, Cédric Journeau, confirms this: “There are three major arguments for the return of this line. First, serving Roissy, the largest international airport in France. Then there is the Marne-la-Vallée service, which offers easy access to the entire east of Paris, via the RER A. Finally, this line would also be of tourist interest for Burgundy-Franche-Comté. We know that a large part of the tourists who come to us are Belgian or Dutch. We could suggest that they join the region by train from Brussels, via Lille. »
SNCF did not respond to the open letter
In 2022, SNCF recalled that “this link had suffered the effects of the health crisis and in particular the fall in air traffic, having an immediate impact on the economic sustainability of this link”. But she did not respond to the open letter from the four elected officials. Last May, François Rebsamen, however, was optimistic for a return of this line at the end of 2024. “It will probably be more in 2025,” says Cédric Journeau.
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