A 100 billion EUR investment plan by 2040 for the railway sector was launched in February 2023 by the French government. These investments should now contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector, the largest emitting sector in France. The transport sector represents the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions at the national level (27% in 2014) due to its heavy reliance on fossil fuels. These emissions rose again in 2015, in contradiction with national commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

These new investments are  intended to modernize the network, to develop it, by investing in particular in the metropolitan trains (RERs), and to make accessible the expertise of Société du Grand Paris’ to local authorities.This investment plan should also massively improve and reinforce the train service in order to give the greatest number of people access to an alternative to the private car. Questions remain, however, about the lack of attention given to small train lines and night trains, two essential links in the chain for daily and long-distance travel.

While this plan sketches out the beginnings of an ecological planning, it now needs to be integrated into a global and coherent mobility policy.

For instance, the Government must now put forward the plan for the 250 million EUR promised for cycling by 2023, of which only 100 million have been confirmed to date. 2.5 billion EUR is  needed over the five-year period to accelerate the development of cycling throughout the country. The government will also have to specify its ambitions in terms of support for public transport, which is essential if we are to build a mobility system that will truly put an end to the “all-car” approach.