Fifteen first metropolitan regional express service projects (Serm), once called metropolitan RERs, have been “labelled” with a view to obtaining aid from the French State, the Ministry of Ecological Transition announced on Thursday. “The regions and communities of the territories (of) Bordeaux, Chambéry, Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Montpellier, Mulhouse, Nantes, Rouen, Saint-Etienne, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Tours as well as the leaders of the Lorraine project- Luxembourg are invited to continue the work of developing their Serm with a view to obtaining the status by decree,” indicates the ministry in a press release.
To obtain this label, the communities presented the broad outlines of their project (scope concerned, local stakeholders mobilized, etc.). Labeled candidates must now refine their projects in order to obtain “Serm status”, the ministry explained in April. “This decision will be taken on the basis of an in-depth file, which must specify the objectives, the road map to achieve them, the financing plan as well as the governance of the project,” he detailed Thursday.
The Lorraine-Luxembourg express metropolitan network service is one of the three major projects mentioned last December by the French Minister then in charge of Transport, Clément Beaune. At the time, he met the Prefect of the Grand Est region as well as the regional president, Franck Leroy. This label confirms a project which should “considerably develop the daily rail offer between Luxembourg and the entire Lorraine Sillon”.
The first orders to grant Serm status should be taken “at the end of 2024”, according to Minister Delegate for Transport Patrice Vergriete. This will then open the door to financial aid provided by the French state.
Other projects are being examined with a view to a second wave of certifications (Avignon, Marseille, Nice, Orléans, Toulon and Basque-Landes, Côte d’Opale and Franco-Swiss projects), according to the ministry.
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