Par
Daniel Chollet
Published on
Jan 16, 2025 at 6:20 a.m.
; updated Jan 16, 2025 at 10:08 a.m.
Public transport, a sensitive subject in Argenteuil (Val-d'Oise). During the last municipal council, elected officials were asked to take a position regarding the Mobility plan in Île-de-France (Pdmif) proposed by the Region and which will be submitted to a public inquiry in March.
“Even if the city has experienced positive progress in terms of equipment and mobility (…) we are struggling to catch up with the delay in transport equipment compared to other municipalities located at an equivalent distance from Paris,” noted Jean -François Ploteau, deputy mayor.
Consequently, the municipality, while taking “note” of the Pdmif, considers it necessary to resume studies regarding the western extension of line T11 (formerly tangential) and the project for line 19 of the Grand Paris Express announced in November 2023 by the president of the Île-de-France Region Valérie Pécresse (Lr).
“Line 19 is not mentioned in the Pdmif”
This metro is supposed, by 2040, to serve Argenteuil, the Enghien-Soisy racecourse basin, as well as the Triangle de Gonesse station and the Roissy – Charles-de-Gaulle airport, i.e. nine to eleven stations in total over 25 to 30 km long for an estimated cost of between 6 and 7 billion euros.
The Val-d'Oise Departmental Council voted on May 31 to launch the first studies.
Sandra Ryadi, municipal councilor (Prg) of opposition (Citizen and Ecological Alternative group), pleaded for river transport before expressing her impatience to see the completion of this T11 line “which has animated so many debates for so many years” and see “finally budget for this line 19 of the Grand Paris Express”, which she sees as “a publicity stunt”.
Xavier Morin (Génération.s), opposition municipal councilor from the Argenteuil ecological and solidarity group, observed that
“line 19 is not mentioned in the document. So, talking about 2040 is illusory. Secondly, the tangential is not mentioned either. Finally, the radials. The document tells us that this will involve an adaptation of services decided by Île-de-France Mobilités as part of a dialogue with local authorities and user associations.”
The elected official fears that this will lead to a reduction in resources for line J, with the prospect of going from four trains per hour to three trains per hour. “We have no guarantees today.”
-Marine Chailloux, municipal councilor (Eelv) of the socialist and ecological group, spoke of “an incantation (…) The T11 line, we have been talking about it for 30 years. We should have had it in 2012. Then in 2017, when it was inaugurated in Épinay. For seven years, we have been waiting to know what will become of it. Mr. Mayor, you said in a public meeting that you thought you would never see T11. So, you gave up the game. »
“Line 19 is a chimera of Valérie Pécresse”
She believes that T11 has been put “on hold for line 19, which is a pipe dream of Valérie Pécresse”, for which there is “neither funding, nor environmental study, nor feasibility study. » And the chosen one concludes:
“No city in the same stratum as Argenteuil is so behind in terms of public transport, so poorly served.”
“The J line works well”
“You think what you want about the T11, we’ll see, the future will tell us,” replied France-Lise Valier2e deputy mayor and regional councillor, denouncing the “negativity” of the opponent. “Transport is developing” in Île-de-France, assured France-Lise Valier, who defended line J, “which works well. »
“I agree that we need additional public transport, but stop being fearful and look at what works.”
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Two elected environmentalists file a complaint
“We refuse to give in to defeatism.” Donia Lassoued and Marine Chailloux, elected environmentalists from Argenteuil, announce that they have filed a complaint “for territorial, social and urban discrimination” with the rights defender, with whom they request a meeting, as well as with the Minister of Transport and to the Île-de-France region. The two opposition municipal councilors believe that Argenteuil is the victim of “real discrimination” in terms of public transport. The two elected officials draw up an assessment that they consider overwhelming over the last fifteen years.
“In 2010, when President Nicolas Sarkozy launched the Grand Paris Express, he neglected Val-d'Oise and particularly Argenteuil. Only an unnecessary station in the open field was planned in Gonesse.” The two elected officials underline that “two trams stop at the gates of the city (in Bezons and Épinay)”, that the bus with a high level of service intended to compensate for the non-extension of T2 “will not be on its own site. It will travel partly on the road, stuck in traffic jams.” “On the train side, they continue, Argenteuil has lost its Rer C service. The Translink leads to Saint-Lazare with crowded trains, on the oldest line in the Ile-de-France network, subject to breakdowns.”
Finally, the two flagship projects, line 19 and T11 (extension between Sartrouville and Épinay), are, according to the two elected officials, postponed indefinitely. “At best 2045” for the first, “at least 15 years” for the second. “We refuse to wait the equivalent of a generation to have new means of travel,” insist the two elected officials.
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