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The Need to Restore the Mulhouse-Lille TGV Line: Burgundy-Franche-Comté Official’s Urgent Plea

This line was suspended during the Covid crisis in 2020.

Elected officials from Burgundy-Franche-Comté are calling, in a column published on Wednesday, for the reestablishment of the Mulhouse-Lille TGV via Besançon and Dijon in particular, “suspended” since the Covid crisis in 2020.

“We are not canceling, we are suspending, during the health crisis, the SNCF spokesperson promised in 2020 (…) Three years later, this service has still not been restored. However, the SNCF announces a record summer with 24 million trips and +10% tickets sold on main lines”, write the mayors of Dijon, François Rebsamen (PS) and Besançon, Anne Vignot (EELV), as well as the presidents of Côte d ‘Or, François Sauvadet (UDI) and du Doubs, Christine Bouquin (DVD).

“This suspension is starting to last: it is profoundly harmful to the European and international, economic, academic, social and cultural attractiveness of our territories”, underline the elected officials, refuting that the line is “not profitable”, as asserted the SNCF.

“Harmful” suspension

“Nothing proves it (…) Certainly, the SNCF has financial imperatives. But is this argument the only one to take into account? Does the SNCF soon intend to “suspend” other lines that are nevertheless popular by travelers, but considered to be in deficit even though the trains would be full? Have the strategic issues linked to ecology, attractiveness, tourism, territorial planning and the needs of the population been so little weight?”

Burgundy-Franche-Comté, with 2.8 million inhabitants, is “the fourth exporting region of France” and “needs to be connected to the major economic centers of the west of France and the north of the ‘Europe’, according to elected officials, who emphasize that the Mulhouse-Lille TGV service, which stops at Roissy, thus connects the region to an international airport.

“Much more than a railway, the Mulhouse-Lille line embodies the promise of a future for our region. Doing without it is not an option. (…) Yes, we prefer the train; Mr. Farandou (Jean-Pierre, CEO of SNCF, editor’s note), make us love the SNCF”, conclude the elected officials.

In addition to the suspended line with Mulhouse, Dijon and Besançon are connected by TGV to Paris, but this train does not stop at Roissy.

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