The CEB approves additional loan of €150 million to Aix-Marseille-Provence for NEOMMA project, an essential investment to improve mobility in the region

Marseille - The Governor of the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), Carlo Monticelli, and the President of the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolitan Area, Martine Vassal, signed today an additional loan agreement of €150 million for the NEOMMA project to modernise Marseille’s metro network. This new loan brings the CEB’s total support for the project to €200 million.

The inhabitants of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolitan area face complex mobility challenges: only 10% of daily journeys are made by public transport, the road network is congested and the rail network is fragile and often saturated. This situation has economic consequences for the region, including a significant loss of competitiveness, and health consequences for the environment and its residents.

Ensuring efficient links between living, service, leisure and employment areas for users of the Marseille metro is therefore a major challenge for the agglomeration, which is acting with the support of the French government through the “Marseille en Grand” plan launched in 2021 to improve public facilities in France’s second-largest city.

The NEOMMA project, financed by the CEB since 2019 and reinforced by the additional €150 million loan signed today, is fully in line with this Plan. It will help improve the quality of Marseille’s metro system by making it fully automatic, safe and accessible to all, including people with reduced mobility or disabilities.

“We are delighted to be continuing our collaboration with Aix-Marseille-Provence to support the modernisation of Marseille’s metro network, a fundamental issue for this region. The CEB’s additional loan will help improve the quality of life of all public transport users, including the most vulnerable parts of the population, in line with the CEB’s mission of financing investment projects with a high social impact”, said Carlo Monticelli, Governor of the CEB.

“This signing takes place on a symbolic day: exactly 47 years ago, on 26 November 1977, the Marseille metro was inaugurated with the trains we have always known... This new loan brings the CEB’s total commitment to over €200 million, or almost 40% of the €541 million needed to finance NEOMMA. Aix-Marseille-Provence has worked for several years to obtain this financing, with the CEB being the bank with which we obtain the best financial conditions, in particular with the lowest interest rates on the market, a very important factor in these complicated budgetary and financial times”, stated Martine Vassal, President of the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolitan Area.

The renewal of the metro, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2027, has become essential due to the natural obsolescence of the trains and operating systems, as well as the gradual disappearance of spare parts and the technical skills needed to maintain the original rolling stock in optimum condition.

As the authority responsible for organising mobility and owner of the Marseilles metro’s trains and operating systems, the region has undertaken this renewal in order to make a tangible improvement to the daily journeys of the metropole’s nearly two million inhabitants. The improvements for users will be significant in terms of regularity, punctuality, comfort, safety and time savings.