“I am furious”: Senator Ghislaine Senée defends the high-speed line between Paris and Normandy

If there were only one, it would be her. Ghislaine Senée, the senator (Les Écologistes) from Yvelines, is making her voice heard on the issue of the high-speed line between Paris and Normandy (LNPN). While the GPS&O urban community has just adopted, by a very large majority, a motion to protest against this railway line which should cross the Seine Valley by 2040, the elected official has taken the opposite position: she declares herself in favour of the construction of this new railway service.

Don’t you feel alone in defending the LNPN?

GHISLAINE SENEE. I do indeed have a minority position! And this earned me criticism and some pretty harsh remarks from my colleagues in the urban community on Thursday evening during the vote.

Today, to put it simply, we have a problem between Poissy and Mantes where there are only two tracks. On these tracks, we run Transilien trains, Normandy trains and freight. As a result, we cannot increase the frequency, punctuality or traffic of the trains! We therefore need a third track.

We could be satisfied with this additional route without extending it to Rouen or Le Havre, no?

Exactly, I don’t think so. If we stay on one more furrow between Poissy and Mantes, it is impossible to attract investments. Because we would switch to a local project that the State, due to its budgetary constraints, will not want to finance. Do you really believe that the government will release money to please GPS&O? Today, only the LNPN, because it is of interregional scope, will be able to be financed.

But it is of no interest to the inhabitants of Yvelines.

That’s wrong! First, we will increase the frequency of trains to Paris, especially for SNCF users. Then, look at the road traffic between Normandy and Paris: who pays the consequences? Who sees too many trucks along the D190? Who suffers from the pollution, greenhouse gases and noise of these thousands of vehicles? The LNPN, by freeing up rail traffic between Paris and Normandy, will promote freight and the transport of goods by rail. This will therefore mean fewer trucks on our roads. We must anticipate the development of links between the two regions today. If GPS&O does not understand this, it is a shame.

You are angry ?

I am furious, yes. We, elected officials, have a duty to tell the truth. We cannot tell the inhabitants anything.

As an environmentalist, aren’t you shocked by the destruction of agricultural land?

We are talking about 200 hectares, no more. We have to know how to make choices. Of course, land will disappear, but for the benefit of public transport and a depolluted mode of transport for residents. Of course, it is expensive today, but these are the investments necessary for the ecological transition which, if we do nothing, will cost us even more. And then I cannot listen to this type of argument coming from elected officials who want the extension of the A104 or the construction of the Achères bridge: these projects, to name but a few, will also nibble away at agricultural land.