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Latest issue / 6 December 2011 /
On 8 September 2011, Réseau Ferré de France (RFF) inaugurated the first part of the eastern branch of the Rhine-Rhône high-speed line. Included in the design and construction of this line, with its major socio-economic challenges, was a series of innovative environmental measures to ensure its long-term sustainability.
Rhine-Rhône HSL: the project
A European dimension
The Rhine-Rhône HSL will further strengthen France’s position in a Europe that is gradually expanding towards the East. Financial support from Switzerland and EU ‘priority link’ status, under the Trans-European Transport Network programme, both underline its recognised importance at community level.
Looking at the map of the present and future European network of high-speed lines, the strategic position of the Rhine-Rhône line is immediately apparent, as a major feeder at the core of mainland Europe and as a link between the different European territories. (more…)
Latest issue / 6 December 2011 /
Since 2010, there has been no end to the discussions and questions about the future of the French rail system and about the future of the French rail industry in particular.
The collapse in rail cargo, the constant increase in the system’s debt, the ageing of the railway network, the difficulties in securing funding for rolling stock investment and infrastructure investment: there are so many issues that, in spite of the context of the launch of the national election campaign, appear foremost in the concerns of political decision-makers, unions and also the sector’s socio-professional stakeholders whether they are railway operators, managers or manufacturers.
This situation might seem even more paradoxical given that France has not prioritised railway transport and projects since post-war times. (more…)
Rail industry news / 10 June 2011 /
Bombardier Transportation teams celebrated the departure of the 700th Autorail Grande Capacite (AGC) regional train from their Crespin workshops, the last in the largest train series in France in recent years. To mark the occasion, Jean Berge, President of Bombardier Transportation France presented the train keys to Dominique Plancke, Chairman of the transport commission of Nord-Pas de Calais regional council, who represented the regional council’s Chairman Daniel Percheron, in the presence of Jacques Goolen, SNCF Regional Director. (more…)
Rail industry news / 19 January 2011 /
This 3.4 billion euro infrastructure project will be one of Europe’s biggest work sites over the next five years.
Réseau Ferré de France has selected Eiffage as its “preferred bidder” for the publicprivate partnership contract to design, build, maintain and fund the Brittany – Loire Valley high-speed line. (more…)
Rail industry news / 24 March 2010 /
Bombardier Transportation received an order for 49 additional Régio2N regional double-deck trains, as an option from the “Régio2N” contract signed with SNCF on behalf of the French Regions, on 24 February 2010. (more…)
Issue 1 2010, Past issues / 28 January 2010 /
Many railway operators have decided to implement ground-to-train radios on their networks in the fourth quarter of the 20th century, which was, for most of them, variants of a UIC specific analogue technology. In order to anticipate the upcoming obsolescence of this existing radio and having in mind the objective to improve interoperability of railway operations all over Europe, the UIC took action in the early 1990s in order to determine which new technology could be specified and promoted. (more…)
Issue 6 2009, Past issues / 12 December 2009 /
The environment of the French Railway Industry Association (FIF) members today has become much more complex than it was in the 80s and 90s, because France, like every European country, is currently in a long-term transition phase of its railway system.
The end of the 90s marked the transition towards a new era, a transition of about 20 years and which admittedly, concerns not only France, but also, and to a similar extent, Europe.
To a great extent, the current development in Europe is due to the impetus given by the European Union, marked by the adoption and implementation of new guidelines, as well as the ‘railway packs’ in the making which have and are going to profoundly alter the rules of the game – all of this with two major objectives: harmonisation and deregulation. (more…)
Issue 6 2009, Past issues / 12 December 2009 /
Enhancing and developing the national rail network to promote rail transport in line with the principles of sustainable development, is the objective set out in the opening lines of the Act establishing Réseau Ferré de France (RFF) in 1997.
For the rail network manager, sustainable development is not just an abstract concept, nor is it a foregone conclusion but more a case of work in progress in relation to new collective milestone benchmarks such as the battle against global warming and loss of biodiversity, environmental risk control, lifestyle integration and overall social responsibilities.
To comply with French undertakings in this connection, RFF has embarked on a campaign of sustainable development in relation to its new challenges as a network manager: market opening, infrastructure modernisation, business model and governance. To improve nationwide accessibility and offer the prospect of sustainable less oil-dependent mobility, efforts to attenuate its carbon footprint are naturally a major target. (more…)
Issue 1 2009, Past issues / 23 January 2009 /
Trackbed maintenance is a fact of railway life. It is the price the industry pays for utilising loose stones as a track foundation. It is simply uneconomical to use less deformable material – such as concrete – other than for certain high-value lines, notably high-speed routes, and experience in France for example is that high-speed and ballasted track are still quite compatible. It seems likely therefore that the ballasted trackbed will be with us for the foreseeable future, which means that it is essential to do what we can to predict the rate at which it deteriorates and the factors that affect it.
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Issue 6 2008, Past issues / 3 December 2008 /
The French Railway Industry Association (FIF) is deeply rooted in the economic and social history of railways in France. Its parent organisation, the Association of Railway Equipment Manufacturers, created in 1899 on the eve of the universal exhibition in Paris where for the first time it exhibited as such, was the official lobbying body for the Trade until 1963 when it changed its name to the present ‘Fédération des Industries Ferroviaires’ (French Railway Industry Association).
Today, FIF regroups most of the main companies within the French rail industrial sector that operate in France, namely rolling stock manufacturers, track and signalling industries, track-laying contractors, equipment integrators and also engineering companies.
Its fifty or so member companies generate a combined turnover of €4.1 billion including €1.8 billion in export markets.
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Issue 6 2008, Past issues / 3 December 2008 /
Long-distance international passenger traffic in Europe will be opened up to competition in 2010. In an interview for the European Railway Review, Alain Bullot, Director of the SNCF Rolling Stock Division, explains how they are gearing up for the challenge.
The European Commission in Brussels has long had a policy of promoting competition between operators on the continent’s railways, in order to bring down prices and sharpen up service for consumers. Competition has been in place in the freight sector for more than two years now, with previously closed markets such as France seeing new entrants such as DB Schenker’s Euro Cargo Rail division and Veolia Cargo.
The next step comes on 1 January 2010, when the international passenger sector will be opened up to competition. Already, some major airlines such as Air France have spoken of taking advantage of the opportunities offered by this change in the law, capturing the environmental zeitgeist with the idea of transferring passengers on international routes such as Paris to London from air to rail.
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Issue 6 2008, Past issues / 3 December 2008 /
Facilitating and encouraging the use of goods trains in Europe is one of the objectives regularly repeated by the European Commission. The situation has never been as favourable to rail transport as it is today yet it is still struggling to outclass road transport in market shares. The Corridor concept has been designed to help it do so, but removing borders is not as simple as it sounds.
Given the increasing improvement in the efficiency of road transport, it is well-known that rail transport will have to increase its competitiveness and, more importantly, its quality. Its advantages have never been so obvious, with an increase in trade, soaring fuel prices and environmental concerns more than ever to the fore. It was in an effort to enhance these advantages that the idea of promoting a European rail network was launched, mainly for freight traffic and offering better quality of service in terms of time, reliability and capacity.
The 2001 White Paper on the European transport policy already provided for the establishment of ‘multimodal freight Corridors’ and, when it was reviewed in 2006, it still retained the project of a ‘rail freight network’. During that year, the European Commission stated, in one of its communications1, that there was a need for measures to encourage the implementation of the project, as this would be consistent with the process of establishing a single market. (more…)
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