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Illustration of the current construction site for the Lyon-Turin base tunnel © ROSSI Thomas

The aim is by 2032 to make it possible to travel from Turin/I to Lyon/F by train in two hours instead of four. Preparations are currently underway for the construction of a 57-kilometre tunnel through the Mont Cenis massif. Environmental organisations are concerned about the ecological impacts: in a joint statement made in mid-June 2023, CIPRA France and Mountain Wilderness appealed to those responsible for the projected high-speed tunnel between France and Italy: “The mountains are not Swiss cheese. There is a need to reduce traffic and manage traffic flows across the Alps.”

It was not a matter of “rejecting the development of the mountains across the board, but of questioning the benefits of large-scale projects and minimising the environmental impacts”. Shifting traffic from road to rail is an essential part of the mobility revolution. For years, however, there have been no answers to the questions concerning the point of the new Lyon-Turin railway line. CIPRA France and Mountain Wilderness have criticised two aspects in particular. The first is the construction of new, gigantic projects such as the Lyon-Turin base tunnel instead of renewing the existing infrastructure: the railway line through the old Mont-Cenis tunnel for example already provides a Lyon-Turin connection that is underutilised and could even now take over three quarters of the goods transported on the surrounding road transit routes. The second point of criticism is the ever-larger transport routes for the growing traffic flows without regard for the burden on the inhabitants and environment of the narrow Alpine valleys. “We must reduce the volume of traffic, not expand it, and manage the transport capacities on the Alpine transit routes together, in a network that combines rail and road. Anything else is an ineffective shift of the problem from one Alpine corridor to the next”, emphasises Kaspar Schuler, Executive Director of CIPRA International.

Sources and further information: www.france24.com/fr/info-en-continu/20230616-manifestation-contre-le-chantier-du-lyon-turin-le-recours-contre-l-interdiction-rejet%C3%A9 (fr),  www.derstandard.at/story/2000143953156/unter-den-alpen-tunnel-soll-frankreich-und-italien-verbinden (de), www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1174095.alpentunnel-bahnstrecke-lyon-turin-megaprojekt-aus-einer-vergangenen-aera.html (de)