France’s infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau recently presented a three-year study for the access route to the future Turin-Lyon tunnel. Costing a total of 170 million euros, the scenario that will be explored, named ‘Grand Gabarit’, is expected to give higher priority to rail freight traffic.

The study will analyse the route connecting the St. Exupéry Airport, in Lyon, to St.Jean de Maurienne and the future French entrance to the Turin-Lyon tunnel, also known as Mont Cenis Base Tunnel. The 120-kilometre ‘Grand Gabarit’ route, connecting Lyon to the future tunnel will avoid passing through Chambéry thanks to two new tunnels crossing the Belledonne and Chartreuse mountain ranges.

However, the new Lyon – St. Jean de Maurienne line will not be ready for the tunnel’s grand opening, scheduled for 2032. This is because the French government decided to prioritise the modernisation of the Dijon – Modane railway, which also leads to the Mont Cenis Base Tunnel but bypasses Lyon. This pushed the expected deadline for the commissioning of the Lyon – St. Jean de Maurienne section to the mid-2040s, over a decade after the planned opening of the Mont Cenis Base Tunnel.

Once the tunnel opens, estimations say it will be possible to move up to 28 million tonnes along the Turin-Lyon axis. However, since priority was assigned to the Dijon – Modane railway, the increase in rail freight traffic through the future tunnel will be diverted on this line for more than a decade. Here, however, is where the problems arise, as even a modernised Dijon – Modane line will not be able to handle those kinds of volumes.

As the image below shows, the green sections of the new railway will be used solely for freight traffic

50 million for the Lyon Rail Bypass

In the same framework as the 170 million euros for the study regarding the new Lyon – St. Jean de Maurienne line, 50 more will be deployed for the Lyon Rail Bypass (CFAL in French), for a total of 220 million euros. The CFAL will allow freight trains to avoid passing through the already congested centre of Lyon. In both cases, the funds will be used for technical, social, environmental and financial studies, as well as to prepare the tendering phase for construction.

France got out in the nick of time when it came to funding both these initiatives. The plan was for the European Union to put in 90 million euros via its Connecting Europe Facility, while France had to find the remaining 130 million euros by 30 January 2024. A solution was found only on 29 January, one day before the deadline, when the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes declared its intention to cover the last 20 million euros gap.

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