Don’t touch my level crossing! In Marseille, 150 residents of the Saint-André district gathered this Saturday with banners in front of this passage that the SNCF wants to remove. Supported by the mayor of the district, the deputy for the City of Marseille Samia Ghali and the deputy Saïd Ahmada, the inhabitants defend this place of passage of buses and cars. For Elisabeth Pellicio, the president of the ciq – neighborhood interest committee, the level crossing “is the DNA of the district. It is the life of the district that is at stake. The SNCF offers us shuttles to reach the district, which is not encouraging.”
SNCF invokes security reasons however, according to the inhabitants there has never been an accident, the passage is not listed as dangerous. Local residents believe that this is the collateral damage caused by the construction of the future Provence-Côte d’Azur line, which they believe will pass through there. Removing the passage would secure this line and allow freight that frightens local residents. Elisabeth Pellicio inisist:“We are determined. Today there are provisions to build level crossings. They are no longer closed!”
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