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30 years on, is the Lyon-Turin rail project still looking so green?
euronews (in English)
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25/07/2023
The high-speed Lyon-Turin rail link involves excavating what will be the world's longest rail tunnel, but will its carbon footprint be too damaging?
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00:00
Fewer trucks and more trains. An appealing idea, and yet, since its announcement about
00:05
30 years ago, the high-speed Lyon-Turin rail link involving the excavation of what will
00:10
be the world's longest rail tunnel at over 57 kilometres has been a subject of division.
00:15
"The climate emergency is that there are 3 million heavy loads that pass each year on
00:18
the road between France and Italy. If you don't make a tunnel, you keep the trucks on
00:23
the roads."
00:24
However, for the project's detractors, the environmental damage far outweighs the benefits.
00:30
"The evaluation was also calculated. To build the whole Lyon tunnel, there is a net contribution
00:39
of 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. The estimates in the project speak of
00:45
the amount of water, about 600-1000 litres per second that could come out of the tunnel
00:52
in the next 10 years. It's a bit like if a nice piece of Turin or a nice piece of
00:58
Lyon were to risk having less water coming in."
01:01
"Today, this drainage represents a significant amount of the flow of the Lark River. In relation
01:07
to all the ecological benefits I just mentioned, that is, the modal report of the trucks on
01:12
the roads, fewer road accidents, less infrastructure wear, the reliability of the exchanges, the
01:19
proximity of the people and the territories, we can consider that it's an investment that
01:23
we can make."
01:24
There is already a railway line connecting Lyon to Turin. Perched in the mountains, it
01:29
allows around 50 trains to pass through the Fréjus tunnel each day, but that's many fewer
01:34
than what the project foresees for the new tunnel. However, opponents claim that the
01:38
existing link is underused.
01:40
"What is certain is that, yes, today, by the line that is already in place, without the
01:45
need to create the tunnel, we could get through what we need."
01:49
In both Italy and France, issues related to the massive construction project fuel opposition.
01:55
"The daily lives of the small villages that are crossed by the transport, waste or
02:02
goods trucks are obviously disrupted. Today, it's just work, waste, and there is a
02:09
huge waste of landscapes that allow for life."
02:15
[SWOOSH]
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