the metropolitan RER certified by the State

Unlike the second tram line, the “Metropolitan RER” project of the Metropolitan Regional Express Services (SERM) is progressing quickly. Thursday June 27, 2024, a little over a year after the territory’s application, the project was approved by state services. A decision which follows the unveiling of the project of the candidate cities which were to present “the general ambition, the local actors mobilized, the scope concerned and the major strategic orientations”.

“The certification by the Ministry of Transport of our “minute” file, submitted at the beginning of the week, is a first step towards obtaining public funding and opens the way for us to additional resources in terms of engineering”, welcomes Emmanuel Denis, mayor of Tours and vice-president of the Metropolis in charge of transport, on his Facebook page. For the mayor of Tours, the railway star (so often praised) will thus become “the backbone of an integrated transport offer, linking urban and peri-urban areas, tram and train, coach and car sharing”.

Trains and a single pass

This will provide prospects for the region in terms of mobility. By the end of 2025, the Fondettes – Saint-Cyr station should be reopened and the “first reinforcements of rail and road offers on existing infrastructures” should see the light of day. That is to say, among other things, new trains would have to be put on the rails to provide service. Added to this is “the creation of a Touraine Pass to promote intermodality between public transport”.

The mayor of Tours continues by indicating that between 2026 and 2028, infrastructure work will take place as well as more in-depth technical studies. Not counting one “second wave of reinforcement of rail and road offers”.