Public inquiry for the Provence-Côte d’Azur new line project (LNPCA)
27 February 2020Jean-Baptiste Djebbari ont annoncé le lancement de l’enquête publique du projet de Ligne nouvelle Provence-Côte d’Azur (LNPCA) en 2021. D’ici là, Etat et collectivités vont mettre en place la mission chargée de définir le plan de financement de ce projet dont le coût des deux premières phases approche les 3,5 milliards d’euros.
Following the public consultation on the first two phases of improving passenger and freight transport capacity between Aix, Marseille, Toulon, Nice and the Côte d’Azur, which ended on October 18, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, the French Secretary of State for Transport at the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Solidarity, gave his approval on Monday, February 24, 2020, for the launch of the public utility inquiry for the New Provence Côte d’Azur Line (LNPCA), setting its scope. It will cover “phases 1 and 2 and the studies and tools for controlling the land to continue the preparation of phases 3 and 4”. It will be launched in 2021.
Phase 1 mainly concerns the construction of the Nice Airport TGV station with four platform tracks, the development of the Toulon RER, the redevelopment of the platform of the Marseille-Saint-Charles station and the tracks of the East and West bundles that converge there.
Phase 2 includes the construction of the Côte d’Azur shuttle service between Cannes and Nice and the underground rail crossing in Marseille. These works include numerous underground structures: a 400-meter station will be built under the old Saint Charles station, as well as two tunnels to access the station: the 4.8-kilometer North tunnel under the Saint-Louis and La Delorme neighborhoods, to connect to the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean line; and the 3.1-kilometer East tunnel under the La Parette neighborhood, to connect to the Marseille-Vintimille line. The total cost of the two tunnels is estimated at 563 million euros.
In addition, in the northern zone, an additional track will be built on the outbound lines, resulting in a second tube for the Saint-Louis tunnel (476 m); this project is estimated at a total cost of €211 million. Finally, a short tunnel could be built as part of the widening to four lanes of the La Blancarde-La Penne-sur-Huveaune section (7.8 km), estimated at a cost of €316 million. Construction work is scheduled to begin in 2023 for 7 years. The cost of the work for these first two phases is estimated at 3 billion euros, including 800 million for the construction of the underground station at Saint Charles. The line will be put into service between 2026 and 2035.
The first two phases will result in a 15-minute travel time gain for the 20,000 trains passing through Marseille each year (coming from or going to Toulon and Nice). The next phases (planned for 2030) will focus on creating new tracks between Cannes-Nice (phase 3), Cannes-Le Muy and Aubagne-Toulon (phase 4).
