“Billions for minutes”: the Southwest high-speed rail line, a savings opportunity for the government?

By Benjamin Moisset

Published on June 27, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. , updated on June 27, 2025 at 10:25 a.m.

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It is one of the largest railway projects in Europe… with a budget to match its ambition: the cost of the two new high-speed train lines (LGV), due to connect Bordeaux to Toulouse in 2032 and to Dax in 2037 , is in fact estimated at 14 billion euros – of which 5.6 billion will be covered by the State, i.e. the equivalent of the annual budget of the Ministry of Culture. So, at a time when Prime Minister François Bayrou will be evaluating “every euro spent” to judge their necessity, the cost of the LGVs could well be scrutinized.

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And doubt has begun to creep into the Southwest. Christophe Huau, director of the SNCF agency in charge of the project, even attempted to reassure on Thursday, June 26. "We have all the funding we need to move forward at the planned pace," and "we will adapt to the decisions of the public authorities," he stated. These statements come two weeks after the revelation of an internal Bercy memo by "L'Humanité" deeming it "possible to reexamine" projects like this one to save money. Speaking to AFP, the ministry simply stressed that "any working document has no arbitration value."

The context of the search for savings is, however, very conducive to a reassessment. François Bayrou has indeed promised to present a plan in July to return public finances to balance, with the objective of saving €40 billion to reduce the deficit. The €5.6 billion cost of the high-speed rail line in the Southwest could then interest him. Especially since this estimate is a priori underestimated: it was made "for information purposes" during 2020, before the last years of inflation.

This is surely why the Minister of Regional Planning, François Rebsamen, was the first to re-examine the copy of these high-speed lines. He had invited at the end of May At the Hôtel de Roquelaure, three opponents of the project, elected officials from Gironde – the mayor of Bernos-Beaulac, Jacqueline Lartigue; the mayor of Saint-Médard-d'Eyrans, Christian Tamarelle; and MoDem MP Sophie Mette. Following this meeting, the latter described it on social media as "new support" in the request for a further study, particularly budgetary, which she intends to submit to the Prime Minister.

The Regional Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESER) of Nouvelle-Aquitaine had already requested that "project costs be updated, as they could be revised upwards" in view of inflation. The consultative body also cited a report from the Court of Auditors, dated 23 October 2014, stating that high-speed lines were "unsustainable" from a budgetary perspective: "High-speed line costs frequently deviate from estimates," the institution wrote at the time.

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