“I have everywhere defended the idea that Val d’Oise could no longer be the great forgotten part of this modern transport network,” launched Marie-Christine Cavecchi, the president of the Val d’Oise department this Wednesday, during of the presentation of the future line 19, of the Grand Paris Express. This will connect Nanterre and La Défense to Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, passing the towns of Argenteuil, Sarcelles and Gonesse, by 2040. “The region has included the project in the development plan regional and environmental (…) It was really important for me that Valérie Pécresse came to officially announce it today,” rejoiced Marie-Christine Cavecchi, the president of Val d’Oise, this Wednesday. The elected official further explains that the Region has agreed to contribute to financing the 6.5 million euros that the “additional studies” will cost.
Estimated ultimately “between 5 and 6 billion euros”, this line 19 could be fully integrated into the Grand Paris Express supermetro project – after the necessary legislative modification – and above all allow “significant time savings” to notably connect Nanterre to Roissy airport “in less than 35 minutes without change”. In addition, it would be – as the department emphasizes – an “effective service to the north-west of Paris” as well as a “direct link for Valdoisiens to major employment centers in the region”. “Connecting Nanterre to the Triangle de Gonesse by irrigating the entire eastern Valdois region allows faster access to the two major employment centers of La Défense and Roissy,” welcomed the president of Val d’Oise this Wednesday, specifying that it will serve no less than “650,000 Valdoisiens and nearly 450,000 jobs”.
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But in the meantime, the road to getting there remains long. Although the project was officially presented this Wednesday, the fact remains that it will really begin in a few months with a feasibility study. This will make it possible to define whether the project is indeed “plausible” and whether it could, one day, be integrated into the Grand Paris Express project. “It takes around 15 years to complete a project like this, supported by all the mayors of Val d’Oise even if they do not yet know the precise detours,” recognizes Marie-Christine Cavecchi. But for her, there is no doubt that the State is maturing the subject and understanding the necessity that it represents for Valdoisiens, “citizens like any other”. And this, in a context where Val d’Oise is the youngest department in mainland France, and whose demographics continue to grow.
“Line 19 is the best response we can give them: a concrete response, a mark of recognition, the connection of the Valdoisien wagon to the regional train,” she said. Some, however, seem more doubtful about the interest of this new line. For the users association Plus de trains, it is a “pharaonic project estimated at nearly 7 billion euros and which would undoubtedly take 20 years to complete”. “For Argenteuil and other towns poorly connected to other suburbs, the ambition is great, but there is a strong risk that this project on paper, perhaps oversized in places, will put key projects on the sidelines” , believes its president Arnaud Bertrand, citing in particular other projects that are “more reasonable and already ready”, such as “the extension of the T11 tram”.
