The question of a station in Béziers to accommodate the new TGV line

Stéphane Lubrano directeur de la mission LNMP et Vincent Martin, créateur du Béziers Narbonne Business Club, – Didier Thomas-Radux

At the Domaine des Hautes Vignes, in Béziers, Stéphane Lubrano, director of the LNMP mission, explained to an audience of business leaders the progress of the new line project between Montpellier and Perpignan.

It was a first at the Hautes Vignes estate, in Béziers, in front of around forty business leaders from Biterrois and Narbonne, members of the Béziers&Narbonne Business Club, created in 2022 by Vincent Martin. Stéphane Lubrano, director of the New Montpellier Perpignan Line (LNMP) mission, detailed for the first time before the economic world, the progress of the TGV line project, with phase 1 from Montpellier to Béziers whose work should start in 2029 and be completed in 2034, then phase 2 from Béziers to Perpignan, envisaged for 2040. If the program of the line is relatively fixed for the 52 km of mixed line of phase 1, the financing remains to be completed (nearly 2.5 billion) and the environmental studies with possible appeals. If the round table of the 13 communities involved is locked, all that remains is to seek out money, particularly from Europe.

1 or 2 stations between Béziers and Perpignan ?

It gets complicated for phase 2, which includes projects for new stations in Béziers, then in Narbonne. The project for this section had been designed as a TGV line exclusively for passengers, but with the desire to develop piggybacking, the question of the relevance of this choice now arises if the project is to be implemented on a TGV line. we want to develop a goods transport offer with Spain. However, switching to a mixed route would result in an additional cost of 2 billion. "At the request of the LNMP company chaired by Ms Delga, we will relaunch traffic forecast studies and technical studies on this phase", explained Stéphane Lubrano. This will be done in 2025.

Question of consistency

But now the question arises of the relevance of two new stations in Béziers, then Narbonne. In addition to the mayors' ego issues, there is the question of consistency, even if being able to reach 320 km or not is not the problem. "We must ask ourselves what the impact of a new station would be on passenger traffic", recalls the director of the LNMP mission, noting however the good location of the Béziers project, close to the A9 and the A75. Communities will have their say. Knowing that this second part of the line is planned in 16 years.
At best.