The European Atlantic corridor (France, Spain, Portugal) : A revelation of the difficulties of territorialization of European transport policy ; Le corridor européen Atlantique (France, Espagne, Portugal) : un révélateur des difficultés de territorialisation de la politique européenne des transports

This thesis focuses on the development of the Atlantic Corridor, a major component of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), with a particular focus on the rail issues crossing France, Spain, and Portugal. Drawing on a multidisciplinary approach that combines transport geography, public policy analysis, and actor studies, the thesis explores the planning, financing, and governance processes that underpin railway infrastructure projects in this region of Southwestern Europe. This thesis aims to fill the gap in studies on the Atlantic Corridor by exploring two complementary research axes.The first focuses on the Atlantic Corridor itself structural evolution, conceived as a set of interconnected projects guided by a logic of global connectivity and a general direction, as well as how transport stakeholders engage with it and the role they intend to assign to it. How was this corridor conceived and developed ? Who are the different actors involved in this project ? Which stakeholders have a vested interest in seeing this infrastructure come to fruition ? The second axis examines the dynamics of the Atlantic Corridor’s territorial integration within European spaces. It explores the corridor’s role in transport policies at various levels, from the European Union to national, regional, and local policies. The study also seeks to understand whether the territories it crosses perceive a benefit in realizing the portion of the project that concerns them. Finally, it aims to identify the obstacles hindering the completion of this infrastructure, whether political, economic, or technical in nature. This study is approached through different scales of analysis, both theoretical, methodological and empirical, with a particular choice of three rail projects: the LGV Grand Projet Sud-Ouest (GPSO), the LGV Y Basque and the LGV Lisbon-Madrid ; Cette thèse s’intéresse au développement du corridor Atlantique, une composante majeure du Réseau Transeuropéen de Transport (RTE-T), avec un focus particulier sur les enjeux ...