TGV EST European - Nimby’s Add to Delays and Costs

Nicholas Newman                                      Tuesday, May 15, 2007

 On June 10^th Europe will see the latest addition to its high- speed rail network, when the first phase of TGV Est. opens to passenger service. This new service will dramatically cut journey times between Paris, Eastern France, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Germany.

New 320kph French TGV and German ICE Trains will be traveling along this new line, the LGV EST European.  Journey times between Strasbourg and Paris will be reduced from four hours to two hours, 20 minutes. People living along the route will be able to take business and leisure day trips to destinations like Euro Disney, Paris and Frankfurt. TGV-Est director Alain Le Guellec said about this new service, "some 37 million Europeans can be served.”

New Trains Launch Price War

A price war has broken out between Air France and the Train operators on all services serving Eastern France. SNCF is offering between Paris and Strasbourg the bargain fare of €15 and Air France is offering similar bargains.

TGV Est will mean the end of Air France’s services between Paris and Metz airports, resulting in Metz losing a fifth of its passengers. As for the Paris to Strasbourg services Air France plans to cut back from twelve flights a day to eight.

This, expansion in rail services, Mr Le Guellec described as a "transport revolution", for Eastern France. The new line should, eventually, lead to growth in traffic of about 65% by 2011. "The TGV-Est is an outstanding technical, human and commercial adventure," he said. "But will it be profitable? That's another question. In its first few years it is likely to run a deficit of €100 million and it will take some 15 years at least to recover the costs of construction.”

Big project, big numbers, big problems

Acquiring the necessary finance of €5.5bn was difficult and a new way of funding known as a Public Private Partnerships had to be used. Ironically, on grounds of ideology the French Rail Union CGT protested against this new way of funding. The Private Public Partnership consists of the French state shared the burden of funding the project with a dozen financial partners including train operators SNCF, DB, the track operator RFF, the European Union, Luxembourg, plus the local authorities along the line.

Guillaume Pepy, the SNCF chief executive, said 30 percent of a train ticket's price goes to cover track investment and maintenance charges, yet profit margins on the TGV service are around 12 percent.

Hubert du Mesnil, president of RFF, the company that built the line, noted. “Enough steel was used in the rails to build 8 Eiffel Towers“ He added that 64 million cubic metres of earth had been removed since the start of construction in 2002. That is nine times the volume of material extracted to build the Channel Tunnel, linking France to the UK.

For the route’s planners and constructors there were numerous issues that had to be resolved. The first was how to build an efficient high speed train line, on target and budget, while minimizing its impact on the human and natural environment of the countryside en route.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the new line is already €1billion over budget and a year late, when it has had to meet the wishes of some of France’s most powerful minority interest groups, who showed little concern for the extra burden on the French taxpayer or train customer, that would have to pay the additional costs incurred by the line’s builder in meeting their demands.

The line passes through many areas of outstanding visual beauty, so on the insistence of the arts lobby, the bridges and viaducts built, like the one that crosses Moselle Valley, had to be designed at additional cost to minimize its impact on the landscape and rural environment. For example, some 40% of the line passes through heavily forested areas. So at the behest of France’s vocal hunting and shooting lobby the builders were forced to construct twenty four bridges and tunnels to enable deer and wild boar to cross the line in safety!

Whilst resolving many of the issues concerning the natural environment, could be largely dealt with, problems concerned with the human element were much harder to solve.

For example, some champagne vineyard owners, members of the country’s heavily influential agricultural sector were concerned how the route of the line would mean the loss of some ‘fine vineyards’. The champagne producers claimed their rather overpriced and overrated wine, is part of the country’s heritage that it must be protected. Cynics would argue that the demands for compensation are just another example of powerful vested groups squeezing money out of the taxpayer to ensure the inefficient production of a sparkling wine that is produced elsewhere in Europe at a better quality and cheaper price to the consumer. Eventually, in order to appease these vested interests. The route was redesigned, and the growers got over generous compensation. “The negotiations were a great success,” not surprisingly, says Jean Francois Dancourt, from the TGV Est property department!

This being eastern France, the site of many major First World War battles, the battlefields the line crossed posed unusual problems. In some stretches the land had to be cleared of unexploded bombs and human remains. A local branch of the Veteran’s Association persuaded SNCF to build the line on a viaduct so that a historic First World War supply route known as the ‘Sacred Path’ was preserved. Its nearly ninety years since the First World War, France is littered with memorials to this sad event. It is time France moved on, and invested in France’s future, rather than turn, yet another part of France, into a museum piece.

In other areas concerns were expressed concerning the possible impact of noise and vibration from the TGV’s as they thundered past. In response, several solutions were implemented including noise barriers, line relocation and even placing the line in cuttings or tunnels.

The Benefits

The 4,000 construction workers, from all over Europe, had a very positive real effect on the villages, towns and regions which, every day, had to cater for them.

Along the line, a property boom is occurring. Frédéric Neff, who manages a Strasbourg real estate agency, said that "locals have been snapping up property in anticipation of a TGV effect." He added: "People are hoping the train will make it more attractive for firms to open offices and send their employees here."

The Future

TGV Est is part of a growing network of intercity high speed lines that will eventually span Europe from Portugal in the west to Poland in the east, Italy in the south to Sweden in the North.

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