For the administrative tribunal, the Charles-de-Gaulle Express is not essential

Legal as they are, the terms used by the administrative court of Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis) to qualify the Charles-de-Gaulle Express project – this direct train which must link the capital to Roissy airport in twenty minutes flat by 2025 – are no less resounding: this project is, today, not “An essential infrastructure” and don’t answer “For imperative reasons of overriding public interest” which would justify that it is undermined to protected species, affirm the magistrates in a decision delivered Monday, November 9.

This judgment partially cancels the environmental authorization and therefore the inter-prefectural decree which launched the work in February 2019. Above all, it sweeps away one by one the arguments put forward in recent years by the State and Aéroports de Paris to defend this shuttle to 2 billion euros for well-off tourists and business executives at 24 euros per ticket.

It was the city of Mitry-Mory, in Seine-et-Marne, which took legal action in June 2019. The town, fiercely opposed to the “Train of the rich”, which, according to her, is to the detriment of everyday travelers, and in particular those of the RER B, must accommodate 7 kilometers of new tracks on its territory. This is the third point raised by the lawyers of the Lepage firm, that on protected species, which caught the attention of the judges.

Two main reasons for being questioned

In France, it is strictly forbidden to harm protected species. The law allows an exception to this principle: the authorization of works can be granted if, and only if, the project meets “For an imperative reason of overriding public interest”, if he “There is no other satisfactory solution”, and if this exemption does not harm the maintenance of species – here, birds and frogs -, explains the court, which cites article 411-2 of the environmental code and a decree of the Council of State s’ referring to it.

However, this link was first designed to absorb traffic from Roissy, which was to grow by 2.8% per year. But, with the crisis linked to Covid-19, the planes were immobilized on the ground. Since June, attendance at the airport has not exceeded “10% of previous activity”. And no one can say if this situation is “Purely transitory and cyclical”. As for the 2024 Olympic Games – another of the justifications put forward – it was noted that the link would not be put into service in time for the event. Consequently, “At the date of this judgment, the disputed project cannot be justified either by the overriding reason to follow the growth in passenger flows or by that of honoring the forecasts in the Paris application file”, write the judges.

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