Article: French plan major investment in urban rail

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http://www.railjournal.com/latenews.html

French plan major investment in urban rail

April 30, 2009

French plan major investment in urban rail

TWO major urban public transport investment projects have been announced by the French government. President Nicolas Sarkozy has launched a plan called Grand Paris which calls for an investment of Euros 35 billion in public transport for the French capital. More than Euros 20 billion of this will be spent on a 130km automatic metro, which will be elevated if possible.

The minister responsible for transport, Mr Jean-Louis Borloo, has also presented a list of 50 rail and bus projects to be built on dedicated rights-of-way in 36 French cities. This government will contribute Euros 800 million to these schemes between now and 2011. The projects include extensions to the metro networks in Lyon and Marseille and the construction of 215km of light rail lines.