François Sauvadet also supports the return of the Dijon TGV line

Here are the wishes pronounced this Monday by François Sauvadet during the session of the departmental council of the Côte d’Or:

Since the health crisis of 2020, the TGV no longer runs on the Mulhouse – Lille line, via Dijon and Montbard. SNCF’s decision to renew the suspension of this line once again, until 2024, is unacceptable. It harms all the inhabitants of the Côte d’Or, employees, students, local businesses and tourists who wish to discover the riches of our beautiful department.

To justify this choice, and away from its public service concerns, SNCF justifies its commercial strategy with the chronic reduction in the number of passengers on this line and the lack of profitability. However, in 2021, the frequency of the TGV is on the rise again. In the Montbard SNCF station, in particular, there are 106,970 passengers this year; or a 45% increase compared to 2020 (73,835 travellers). For the year 2022, this presence is estimated at between 125,000 and 130,000 travellers. This TGV line is essential to support our territory, our businesses and our attractiveness. Above all, it allows travelers and exporting companies to be in direct contact with Europe via Lille and with the whole world via Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport. Furthermore, this connection also contributes to the essential objectives of the ecological transition and enables a European rail network. Local businesses, whose economic influence is international, are deeply affected by this suspension.

The departmental councilors of the Côte-d’Or ask the managing director of the SNCF to restore the TGV line Mulhouse – Lille, passing through Dijon and Montbard. He is asked to reconsider this choice, which conditions everyone’s access to a local public service. The departmental councilors of Côte-d’Or are also calling on the government to support the restoration of this TGV line in the name of balance and the principle of territorial equity.