Réseau Ferré de France (RFF) - Articles and news items

The infrastructure managers and capacity allocation bodies put Rail Freight Corridor 2 on the tracks

Rail industry news / 21 March 2013 /

Today, the infrastructure managers and capacity allocation bodies of the five countries through which passes Rail Freight Corridor 2 (Rotterdam/Antwerp – Luxembourg – Basel/Lyon) created the governance structure of this corridor.

(more…)

RFF: First lessons learned from its four PPPs

Issue 6 2012 / 27 November 2012 /

Railway investment requires long-term funding. Sometimes the State will choose to take direct ownership or may even prefer to transfer all or part of the responsibility and risk to the private sector. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) can offer a highly flexible way of combining public and private funding.

These highly flexible approaches include:

The terms of the contract reflect the extent of the business risk that the public sector wishes to transfer to the private sector. Part nership contracts delegate the task of designing, financing, building and operating specific infrastructure in return for payments to be made throughout the operating period. With a concession, the private sector takes on not only the above risks but also the business risk.
The length of the contractual period reflects the extent of the maintenance risk trans ferred. In the rail sector, contracts in excess of 30 years are synonymous with transfer to the private sector of the risks inherent in track renewal.

The life-cycle of railway infrastructure is long and the risk of obsolescence sufficiently small to make private debt a realistic option, even on the basis of relatively small net assets. (more…)

Nexans awarded first CORE-TAG anti-theft cable technology contract by SNCF for the network of Réseau Ferré de France (RFF)

Rail industry news / 26 November 2012 /

Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer (SNCF) has awarded Nexans, a worldwide expert in the cable industry, its first contract to design and manufacture specialised rail cable that includes the new CORE-TAG anti-theft cable technology. This cable will be installed in the network infrastructure in 4 of the regions operated by Réseau Ferré de France (RFF), the company that owns and maintains France’s rail network.

(more…)

Rhine-Rhône HSL: sustainable development in a rail sector environment

Issue 6, 2011 / 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…)

Eurotunnel to work with RFF to install new radio communication system

Rail industry news / 17 October 2011 /

Eurotunnel has launched a project to install a state of the art radio communication system in the Channel Tunnel which will provide full interoperability with the entire European railway network by 2014. The contract with Alcatel-Lucent, announced on 15 December 2009 is for GSM-R, the first phase of the ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System).

(more…)

RAILENIUM gets €550 million boost from French government

Rail industry news / 28 June 2011 /

RAILENIUM, the European Institute for Technological Research in Rail Infrastructure, has been selected by the French government as a leading investment project and has been awarded €550 million in funding.

(more…)

High-speed rail between Tours and Bordeaux Réseau Ferré de France and VINCI sign world’s biggest rail concession contract

Rail industry news / 16 June 2011 /

The concession contract for the future South Europe Atlantic high-speed rail (SEA HSR) between Tours and Bordeaux was signed today by the concession company LISEA, represented by Xavier Huillard, chairman and CEO of VINCI, and French railway infrastructure manager Réseau Ferré de France (RFF), represented by its chairman and CEO, Hubert du Mesnil, following a competitive bidding process launched in 2007 by RFF. This signing follows both the French Prime Minister’s confirmation that the French government wanted to see this project move forward before the end of this month and RFF’s board of directors meeting of 9 June 2011.

(more…)

Brittany Loire Valley high-speed line: RFF selects Eiffage

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…)

RFF selects Eiffage for the public-private partnership (PPP) contract for the construction of the Brittany – Loire Valley high-speed line

Rail industry news / 19 January 2011 /

(more…)

The SEA LGV concession between Tours and Bordeaux: can others follow suit?

Issue 6 2010 / 10 December 2010 /

The South Europe Atlantic high-speed line project (SEA LGV) is being built as the first railroad concession model in France. Under this model, industrial and financial partners will be responsible for building and operating the 300km-long high-speed line between Tours and Bordeaux. The contracts covering the financing of the project are scheduled to be finalised by the end of 2010. (more…)

RFF – a strategic vision to battle global warming

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…)

European freight Corridors without borders

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…)