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Purpose and Problem
The purpose is the construction of a high-speed railway line linking the cities of Paris, Orlèans, Clermont- Ferrand and Lyon. The problem consists of facilitating transportation and reducing travel time between these major French cities while minimizing environmental and territorial impacts.
History
The desire to build a high-speed rail line in order to reduce the travel time between Paris and Lyon and the main intermediate cities, requires a new route to cross other areas of the territory other than those occupied by the existing rail network , as a result of the most demanding design conditions for a high-speed line, mainly due to large radii of curvature and new station designs.
There are also problems of environmental impact, both visual and sound, and for all this it is made available to the affected people and local authorities (for example mayors and the living forces), the preliminary draft and the variants design designed by the French railway company so that opinions and objections to its construction can be issued.
The president of the National Commission for Public Debate - CNDP - in view of the relevance and importance of the assets that may be affected by the layout, decides that the project should be submitted to public debate. For this reason, he appointed the president of the particular commission -CPDP- whose nomination fell on an engineer with the fundamental role of guaranteeing participation and being neutral. However, his academic training allows him to clarify useful concepts before the public when certain technical explanations or translation of specifications into a language understandable by all are needed.
With the proposal of said president of the Particular Commission, the Commission Nacional appointed the six (6) members of the CPDP. It also decided the term in which the public debate will take place: October 3, 2011 to January 31, 2012. (To date, not yet finalized).
Originating Entities and Financing
The original entity of the project is Reséau Ferré de France, and as regards citizen participation, the responsible and funding institution is the Commision Nationale du Débat Publique -CNDP- which acts in each area through delegations, each of them called Commision Particulier du Débat Publique - CPDP.
Selection of Participants
Citizen participation was promoted by this commission in the first place by creating a special website for the public debate and at the same time through public dissemination means, such as a project newsletter (Le Journal du débat publique) and a vehicle with posters that traveled around the cities near the track, informing and inviting participants to participate. This can be seen on the website itself.
On the other hand, in order to guarantee pluralism, public participation is free and the meeting places and times are available on the site for everyone.
Methods and Tools Used
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Deliberations, Decisions and Public Interaction
The public debate was inaugurated on October 3, 2011 and the CPDP made the design documents of the railway line available to the public first, mainly its preliminary draft, a synthesis of the work, the dossier, the cartography of the road area and studies of the territory.
The CPDP also presented the tools and regulations for the public to express themselves, the places and dates of the meetings and the interactive internet site.
2.- The Public Listening Phase
In this phase, the CPDP makes available to the public until the end of the debate (on January 31, 2012), not only the meeting places (with their corresponding organization) so that the different participants can listen to each other, with infrastructure and through moderators, but also publishes on the Journal du débat publique already mentioned, the proposals of the public (to date four issues of it have already come out), it includes videos of the interventions on the website, the written and oral contributions and finally the questions.
A particularly extensive contribution was presented by the Regional Council of Auvergne on the strategy of development and management of the territory in the area where the railway is located.
3.- The Deliberative Phase
The president of the CPDP will make a report of the public debate, in a period not exceeding two months after the end of the public debate. Likewise, the president of the CNDP (at the national level) will take stock of the process and its results.
The topics discussed are:
- The conduct of the project
- The economics of the project
- The context and the current situation
- The scenarios present in the debate
- The layout of the LAV Paris-Lyon line
- The transport service
- The planning of the territory
- The operation of the railway
- The effects on the environment
- The articulation with the other railway lines
Said report and balance will be sent to the Construction Management, that is, Reséau Ferré de France, which in a period of no more than three months, must make a decision on what has been decided regarding modifications or not to the project, informing the CNDP and made public.
Influence, Results and Effects
The process is still in progress development and to date there is a month and a half to finish the debates. However, it is worth highlighting the intervention of the mayor (Maire) of Roanne who has underlined that the meeting of citizens in that city has constituted an important point of reference in various facets: in the first place, the first in its type in the city, secondly that it has favored the exchange of ideas and proposals, thirdly that it involved the public in the project, that brought people closer to each other as a value to be highlighted in itself and finally - and also very important - that allows a generation to debate what they will leave to future generations.
Analysis and Lessons Learned
The main criticism that can be made to the process described is that the CNDP has decided to appoint both the president and the members of the CPDP on their own initiative, without the participation of the public. The debate authorities are very important in terms of their ability to manage the meeting and also in terms of being neutral. The nomination by the state thus excludes a meta-participatory process for these nominations, which would be desirable -being consistent- with the public participation that is sought. start and end.
It is understood that the project discussion period cannot be sine die, but the established time (four months) to discuss a project of the magnitude and implications that it has, seems to all lights scarce, especially if technical proposals must be studied, assessing them in their various aspects, discussing complex environmental impacts and at the same time building feedback with the reasons why one solution is chosen and not the other.
Secondary Sources
Work Dossier
Summary of the Work
Usage Form
Session Calendar
Press
Regulations
Contact
External Links
Commission Nationale du Debat Publique - CNDP
Wikipedia Train Paris-Lyon - [English] [French]
Association TGV Provence - Côte d'Azur