FRANCE: The Département et Région Outre-Mer of La Réunion and its five municipalities, which sit on an island in the Indian Ocean, have signed a ‘partnership roadmap’ for revival of the Réunion Express interurban railway project. Along with bus and road improvements, the programme is designed to reduce dependency on private cars and cut carbon emissions.
The planned route unveiled on 29 August is the same as that of the tram-train project abandoned in 2010, linking towns along the west and north coast. It would be built following completion in 2030 of the New Coastal Road currently under construction along the littoral. A Société Locale des Grands Projets is to be set up to take the project forward and seek funding for the estimated expenditure of €3bn. Larger stations would be intermodal hubs with buses serving inland settlements.
Little information has been given on the railway’s specification, though it is likely to be an updated version of the previous project: a 140 km electrified standard gauge line with 26 stations served by a fleet of 30 tram-trains capable of up to 110 km/h outside urban areas. The 40 m-long cars were to run every 10 min at peak times, with annual patronage estimated at 15 million.
Phase 1 was planned to link Saint-Paul with the capital Saint-Denis and its airport, a distance of 41·5 km. Of this route, 12·5 km along the north coast was to be in tunnel. Finance of €435m had been secured and a contract was awarded in 2009, but following a change of government in 2010 the money was diverted to reconstruction of the coast road. Another attempt was made in 2018, when a 9 km link from Saint-Denis to the airport also failed to get off the ground.
