The government asked the SNCF to prepare a “much smaller” project for the Gare du Nord, around 50 million euros, announced the Minister for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, the day after the abandonment of ‘a gigantic transformation project for this station.
“We asked the SNCF to prepare a much smaller project, in a dimension of around 50 million euros, to make adjustments and meet the challenges of 2023 and 2024”, namely the Rugby World Cup and the Olympics, he said on Wednesday.
“A project that went badly from a technical point of view”
“The initial project was 600 million euros and slipped to 1.5 billion, and which has shifted two to three years in the schedule. It is the chronicle of a project that went badly on the technical level, “regretted the minister on RMC / BFMTV, returning to Tuesday’s announcement.
“It is abandoned as it is. The SCNF has indicated its intention to terminate the contract”, and it is “supported by the government”, underlined Jean-Baptiste Djebbari.
The site was to triple the surface of the station
The SNCF announced Tuesday evening that it was giving up the gigantic and controversial transformation project of the Gare du Nord in Paris designed with Ceetrus, a subsidiary of Auchan, highlighting “unbearable drifts”, especially in terms of cost. The site was to triple the area of the first station in Europe in anticipation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2024.
“It is a project which was supported by the mayor of Paris, voted by the mayor of Paris, who then carried out an electoral campaign against the project of the Gare du Nord (…) There was no of political consistency on this subject “, accused the minister.
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is a socialist candidate in the presidential election. After the announcement of the SNCF, the town hall of Paris called “not to postpone once again the modernization and renovation of the station”. “We are available and willing to initiate a new renovation project for the Gare du Nord which is at the service of daily users, urban integration and intermodality”, said in a press release Emmanuel Grégoire, first deputy of the mayor PS Anne Hidalgo.
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