ON MARCH 4 the French Ministry of Transport published an 'audit' of major infrastructure projects commissioned last August from the Conseil Général des Ponts et Chaussées (RG 3.03 p136). Transport Minister Gilles de Robien had called for the report because he had inherited projects 'begun, studied or announced by the preceding government without the necessary finance having been guaranteed'. The report will serve as the basis for discussions in both chambers of parliament next month before any decisions are taken. De Robien made it clear in subsequent media interviews that he regarded the audit as a report from consultants, noting that 'for political reasons we may not follow what is recommended'.

Needless to say, the audit considered that completion of the national motorway network and bypasses round six major towns or cities should be among those schemes with high priority. Among rail projects considered, the planned link into Spain between Perpignan and Figueres was not examined in detail as it was already well in hand - although construction has yet to start. Surprisingly, the audit accorded low priority to the second phase of LGV Est Européenne (RG 3.03 p139), prompting the Alsace region to threaten to withdraw its share of funding unless the scheme goes ahead in full. The authors had presumably not consulted Senators Haenel and Gerbaud, who in their report on the freight business (p177) pointed out that phasing of the project would cause serious capacity problems on the line between Metz and Strasbourg after the first phase opens.

Similarly, the timescale for building the Lyon - Torino high speed line with its long base tunnel, for which the French section alone has a price tag of €8bn, was called into question. The audit suggested upgrading existing lines by 2007 with parallel launch of the rolling motorway project, but completion of the base tunnel 'for classic freight traffic' would probably not make sense until after 2020. This triggered fury in the French Alpine regions.

Five other rail schemes made it into the priority list: the new line between Nîmes and Montpellier, the Haut Bugey cut-off shortening the route between Mâcon and Genève, the eastern branch of the Rhin-Rh