Verfeil (France) (AFP) – The A69, the construction of which was contested for four years by environmentalist associations, was put into service on Friday morning, to connect Toulouse to Castres at a price considered too high, including by the strongest supporters of the motorway, noted an AFP journalist.
Published on: 06/11/2026 - 1:34 p.m.
In thick autumn fog and in the absence of opponents, the first motorists took the highway shortly after 10:45 a.m. in front of the media gathered on the road in Verfeil (Haute-Garonne) during a visit organized by Atosca, the concessionaire for the 53 km section.
“Is it open?” Ronan, a truck driver, asked journalists. “So I'm going to take it, I'm going to test it,” he continued after learning that he could now drive his truck on the highway contested by a number of legal challenges.
The latest controversy to date, the price of a Toulouse-Castres round trip, among the highest in France, will be 20.40 euros, according to the prices published Thursday in the Official Journal, in line with those announced by Atosca.
This tariff arouses criticism even among the ranks of the most convinced defenders of the new infrastructure. “Like the Tarnais, I feel betrayed!” said the president (PS) of the department, Christophe Ramond, pro-A69 from the start. “This amount does not correspond to the word given by the State”, according to Mr. Ramond, for whom these prices are “much too high for the Tarnais”.
- "culmination" -
“This is the culmination of a project initiated several years ago,” declared the Minister of Transport Philippe Tabarot, Friday morning on
“The decision to authorize the commissioning of the A69 motorway has been signed,” the Ministry of Transport told AFP on Thursday evening, confirming the lifting of the last reservations concerning the safety of the new infrastructure.
The A69 motorway gave rise to a protest by environmental associations that began before the start of the project, in 2023, and marked by demonstrations, sometimes punctuated by incidents with the police, as well as numerous legal appeals.
These opponents of the A69 notably obtained at the end of February 2025 the suspension of work by the administrative court of Toulouse, which had considered that the project did not present a "major public interest" justifying the damage to the environment that it was causing.
But, at the end of May 2025, the Toulouse administrative court of appeal authorized the resumption of the site, which this time was not to stop until the end of the work.
- "Gladly commissioning"
"As a symbol, it is in a fog to cut with a knife that a gloomy commissioning will take place, that of an empty A69 at 20.40 euros round trip, while the promoters of the project are leaving the ship. It is also a day of great cowardice. No inauguration for lack of volunteers to cut the ribbon", declared in a press release the collective of opponents La Voie est Libre (LVEL), quoting in particular the president of the Occitanie region PS Carole Delga, also pro-A69 from the start but who also criticized its price.
Symbolically, dressed in fluorescent orange jackets, a few dozen highway staff applauded the general director of Atosca when he removed the plastic blocks to open an access ramp to Puylaurens (Tarn), before a motorist passed by honking. “We were shocked by the difficulties,” said Mr. Gerlinger.
Local authorities, parliamentarians and the Ministry of Transport met by videoconference in recent days about the price, according to consistent sources. But no solution has been found to reduce it.
This tariff is the consequence of an unfavorable opinion from the Council of State, which called into question the legality of an amendment providing for subsidies from local authorities (Communities of communes, department, Region) and the State to reduce the price of the motorway toll by approximately 33%.
© 2026 AFP
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