The Montpellier metropolitan RER has just successfully completed the first stage of a long, winding journey.
A month ago, the stakeholders officially signed an application, InfOccitanie was present (our article here). The Occitanie Region, the Montpellier Metropolis and the Hérault Departmental Council are working together to obtain the status of SERM, Metropolitan Regional Express Services. Objective? To benefit from significant state funding in order to strengthen mobility, the intermodality of means of transport, and connect urban centers to the outskirts. In other words, to reduce the place of the car.
OUST the car!
“The SERM Montpellier Méditerranée is a very original and atypical project,” Jean-Luc Gibelin, vice-president of the Region in charge of Mobility, told us at the time. A project that connects several urban centers rather than a single location.” Another particularity, the “balanced” articulation of the different modes of transport: rail, bus, coaches, bicycle, carpooling, etc.
The list of 15 selected cities
The Ministry of Transport published this Thursday, June 27, the list of the first fifteen SERMs. Montpellier is one of the 15 cities selected, alongside Bordeaux, Chambéry, Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Mulhouse, Nantes, Rouen, Saint-Etienne, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Tours and Lorraine-Luxembourg.
Montpellier and Toulouse in competition?
Around ten other projects should be announced before July 7, according to the ministry. This SERM labeling is part of the Regional State Plan Contracts (CPER). An envelope of €800M, to be spent between 2023 and 2027, is dedicated to financing SERM studies on the national territory. The prefect of Hérault, François-Xavier Lauch then gave us a confidence, the State has committed to financing 50% of the studies of the SERMs of Montpellier and Toulouse. It remains to be seen whether the two SERMs will not find themselves in competition to obtain subsidies in the event that only one project per region is financed…
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