The emergence of a geopolitical alpine space of transports analysed through the history of the Lyon-Turin railway project[L'émergence et la construction d'un espace alpin des transports lues à travers l'histoire du projet Lyon-Turin]

A new political space is emerging in Europe at the alpine scale. It tends to be structured around the issue of transalpine transit traffic, which has facilitated the gradual creation of a common and shared policy within the Alpine region. This paper analyzes the conditions and the challenges of an emerging geopolitical space around the Alps on the basis of two case studies. The first one deals with the project of a new railway link connecting Italy to France across the Alps, from Turin to Lyon. The significance of a major infra-structure project can be measured not only in terms of the amount of investment necessary for its construction, but also by analysing the project from a more political point of view. Actually, the definition of a great transport project often afford an interesting opportunity to launch a large debate on themes such as territorial planning and general aims and impacts of a transport policy. In such conditions, these projects provide an opportunity for new ideas and new knowledge to be raised and to enter the political decision-making process. Consequently, they often result in a change of political priorities, problems at stake and finding solutions within the transport political agendas. By analysing the evolution of the strategic goals that the Lyon-Turin project has integrated over time, this paper shows the emerging of an alpine dimension within the transportation policy debated in France and in Italy. The second case study supplements and enlarges the first one. It analyses the alpine cooperation systems dealing with transports issues and their development at the whole alpine arc scale. It aims at retracing the evolution in the representation of transalpine traffic issues in order to asses its impact on the development of transport policies in the region. The parallel between the 2 case studies will help understanding the mutual contributions of the two decision-making processes, which at the beginning had no common points. By showing the relation between the "alpinisation" of the Lyon-Turin project and the political changes within the alpine region, this paper endeavours to assess to which extent the decision making process concerning transit management has contributed towards the emergence of a geopolitical alpine space.