Rail industry news / 15 April 2010 /
ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won an order worth $25 million from train manufacturer Alstom Transport to supply its latest generation of traction transformers for the new Régiolis regional trains run by the French National Railways (SNCF). (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…)
Rail industry news / 26 February 2010 /
Bombardier Transportation has won a tender for new regional double-deck trains organized by the French Railways (SNCF) on behalf of the French Regions. The framework contract includes the design and manufacturing of 860 double-deck electrical multiple units (EMU) for approximately 8 billion euros ($11 billion US), subject to exercising some technical options. With this framework contract, SNCF also signed a first firm order for 80 trains valued at approximately 800 million euros ($1.1 billion US), financed by the Regions. (more…)
Rail industry news / 11 February 2010 /
A new station, Gallieni – Canceropôle, has been added to the Toulouse Auch TER line, which carries 6,000 passengers a day. Connexinfra, in charge of carrying out the project, selected the Corus Rail modular steel platform system. (more…)
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.
Issue 6 2007, Past issues / 26 November 2007 /
Many railway operators decided to implement ground-to-train radios on their networks during the fourth quarter of the 20th century, which, for most of them, was to use variants of 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 to determine which new technology could be specified and promoted. (more…)
Issue 6 2007, Past issues / 26 November 2007 /
On 25 May 2007, Anne-Marie Idrac, the president of the SNCF Group and Hubert du Mesnil, the President of Réseau Ferré de France, signed a new infrastructure management agreement to cover the financial years from 2007 to 2010 inclusive, for maintenance and upgrading of the French national railway network.
There are three concerned areas. Firstly, there is path plotting, of which an annual sum of approximately €32 million has been set aside for. Then operations, that is to say operational traffic management and traffic follow-up. An annual amount increasing from €794 million in 2007 to €861 million in 2010 will be dedicated to this area, which includes the safety and regularity assessment missions. Finally, the management agreement concerns the routine maintenance and major maintenance of railway facilities, for an amount decreasing from €1,890 million to €1,860 million over the term of the contract. (more…)
Issue 6 2007, Past issues / 26 November 2007 /
Alstom’s high-speed bogies are the result of a joint collaboration with SNCF which started some 30 years ago in the frame of the TGV development. From the outset of the TGV development, it appeared that articulated train architecture would be the most suitable solution to satisfy the objectives of safety, comfort and cost-efficiency. Once the general architecture of the trainset was adopted, it was necessary to define the bogie architecture and its main characteristics. (more…)
Issue 2 2007, Past issues / 3 April 2007 /
The European rail network is becoming increasingly integrated and, with its attractive range of long-distance passenger services, Deutsche Bahn is one of the principal players.
The construction of new infrastructure which has led to shorter journey times as well as the liberalisation of the rail transport markets has accelerated this trend even further. As a result, rail will replace the aeroplane as the major transport mode on many important routes. Deutsche Bahn is absolutely determined to exploit the potential of the international long-distance passenger transport market, to attract new customers and substantially expand its international operations.
No other EU Member State has as many neighbouring countries as Germany, and no other railway crosses as many borders as DB AG. Day in, day out, 35,000 passengers use our international long-distance trains to travel to other countries, or come to Germany from neighbouring countries. Cross-border traffic already makes a substantial contribution to our overall revenues. Almost 100 cities in 20 different countries can now be reached conveniently by ICE, EuroCity, Nachtzug or Autozug without the need to change trains. On several routes, we have deployed new rolling stock over the past few years, reduced journey times, introduced attractive fares and harmonised timetables and products in cooperation with our neighbouring railways.
The ICE from Frankfurt/Main to Paris will go into operation in June 2007; in return, the TGV will come to Germany, on the Paris-Stuttgart line. Deutsche Bahn and SNCF, the French railway, have joined forces to develop an impressive product that will also encourage airline customers to switch to rail.
Journey times between both Frankfurt and Paris and also Stuttgart and Paris will be reduced by approximately 40%, to less than four hours. When transfers and airport procedures are taken into account, this means that rail now offers competitive journey times compared with air. Moreover, international passengers enjoy more comfort on board and have the freedom to use the travelling time as they please. Our forecasts predict that 30% of our future passengers between Frankfurt and Paris will be people who have switched from plane to rail.
Subject to the approval of the European competition authorities, SNCF and Deutsche Bahn will market both these routes together in the form of a joint venture. An introductory product will be launched in June 2007 and, as from December, there will be four direct daily TGV connections been Stuttgart and Paris and five direct daily ICE connections between Frankfurt and Paris.
The train crews deployed to and from Paris will be tri-lingual. This is also the first time that train personnel from both DB and SNCF will serve customers on these two routes. BahnCard holders will now be entitled to discounts on the French sections of both routes.
The extremely complicated retrofitting of ICE for the French high-speed network and a comprehensive test programme have already proved that even technical differences are not insurmountable.
While the ICE will celebrate its premiere in Paris in 2007, it is already a familiar sight in Amsterdam, Brussels, Vienna and Zurich. In recent years, Deutsche Bahn has steadily introduced its premium product in important foreign markets: Switzerland ranks first in that list, followed by Austria, The Netherlands, Belgium and France. We also cooperate successfully with other European railways, such as the Dutch NS on the ICE route Frankfurt-Cologne-Amsterdam, where we operate a joint route management system with a pool of vehicles. Our passengers experience the ICE product regardless of whether they travel on a DB or NS train, guaranteeing a consistently high standard of comfort.
At the end of 2007, Deutsche Bahn will introduce a similar model on the Frankfurt/Main – Passau – Linz – Vienna line. In cooperation with the Austrian federal railways, ÖBB, we shall replace the previous conventional EuroCity services with an ICE service running at attractive two-hourly intervals.
In 2006, we set up a joint marketing company, ‘Rheinalp’ with registered office in Freiburg, together with our partner railway SBB in order to expand cross-border services between Germany and Switzerland. Thanks to innovative marketing concepts, we succeeded in attracting new customers in both the business and tourism segments last year.
Further improvements to our services are to follow. As from the end of 2008, we shall offer the first ICE link from Frankfurt/Main to Brussels which takes less than three hours, which is roughly 40 minutes faster than the present product. As from 2010, a rail journey from Frankfurt to London will take just four hours, 40 minutes. Deutsche Bahn is linking up Europe!
Every single case will be examined to decide whether cooperative or competitive products should be offered. However, our performance will initially depend on whether we succeed in winning market shares from the private car and air sectors. This also means that we have to guarantee high quality standards on cross-border services. That is why Deutsche Bahn also supports the establishment of the international quality alliance ‘Railteam’, a cooperative project between seven partner railways – DB, SBB, ÖBB, SNCF, SNCB, NS and Eurostar. The overriding target is to harmonise quality standards. We wish to develop services which do not end at the national borders. Railway can only exploit its full market potential throughout Europe if it offers an attractive range of products over and beyond the national borders.
I am confident that rail in Europe looks forward to a brilliant future.
Dr. Nikolaus Breuel has been Chairman of DB Fernverkehr AG with registered office in Frankfurt am Main since 2004. The company has 14,000 employees and generates annual sales of approximately €3 billion.
Issue 2 2007, Past issues / 3 April 2007 /
The Haut Bugey line project is one of several Franco-Suisse projects. Its aim is to improve train links between France and Switzerland, as per the agreement signed in 1999 by French and Swiss governments. Although the project is entirely located in France, the Swiss government provides close to one third of the financing for the €340 million project, in line with the expected benefits for Switzerland.
Before the opening of the first TGV line, Paris-Genève passengers travelled by way of Lausanne. This journey usually involved a change of train, and thus offered a rather poor service and an uncompetitive travel time of approximately 6 hours.
With the opening in 1981 of the Paris to Lyon TGV line (LN1), the journey time between Paris and Genève fell to 3 hours and 30 minutes. The route was changed, and trains began running at high-speed between Paris and Macon, then leaving the high-speed line at Macon and carrying on through Bourg-en-Bresse, Amberieu, Culoz, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine and on to Genève. This helped greatly in building up an efficient train service between Paris and Genève. Travel time was further reduced to 3 hours and 22 minutes when the maximum operational speed on the LN1 High-Speed line was increased from 270km/h to 300km/h in 2004. Such travel time however remained just above the 3 hour threshold where train takes advantage over planes for that type of journey. Journey times will not be expected to increase in the near future, neither on the high-speed line nor on the classical line between Macon and Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, due to the curvature and gradient of the line. Besides, the section between Macon and Amberieu also accommodates freight traffic, often conflicting with passenger traffic.
To gain a journey time below the 3 hour threshold, various options, involving boring long tunnels through the Jura Mountains, were studied but later abandoned because of high costs. One option, however, appeared to be cost-effective while meeting the target. This option was to modernize an existing line linking Bourg-en-Bresse and Bellegarde-sur-Valserine by way of Nantua. This route is 47km shorter than the current one (65km long via Nantua against 112km long via Amberieu) and it was expected that it will cut journey times by 20 minutes. Another advantage is to free, for freight traffic, train paths currently used by TGVs on the Bourg-en-Bresse – Amberieu section.
The so-called ‘carpate’s line’, linking Bourg-en-Bresse and Bellegarde-sur-Valserine via Nantua, was in operation from the late 19th Century until 2005.
Operation of the section between Bourg-en-Bresse and the junction onto Oyonax (hereafter called first section) started in 1877 and was suspended in August 2005 until modernization works are completed.
Operation of the section between junction onto Oyonax and Bellegarde-sur-Valserine (hereafter called second section) started in 1882 and was stopped in 1990.
The 65km long railway runs through the mountainous region of the Haut Bugey, reaching an altitude of 600m by the Lake of Sylans. Sylans is known as a very cold area where, until not so long ago, ice was extracted from the lake and stored in deep wells to be sent to Paris or Marseilles almost all year round. From Nantua to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, snow can be expected for at least three months a year, sometimes as late as April.
The line curves around peaks, travelling up and down steep gradients (often 2%). Many curves have radiuses of 300m or less. After modernisation, operation will start again on the whole of the line. The first section will accommodate both TGVs and regional traffic originating either from Lyon or Bourg-en-Bresse and carrying on onto Oyonax and Saint Claude while only TGVs will travel the second section.
Preliminary studies started in the late 90s, at the time RFF was created to take over the French railways infrastructure from SNCF. Concertation procedures, both within the French administration and with the public were completed in early 2003 for the former and by the end of 2003 for the latter. The Swiss government confirmed its financing (€110 million) in September 2003. The project was approved and it was decided to go on with the next phase. The consulting engineer was chosen through a competitive bid process to perform detailed design and prepare tender documents for the works. That phase started in 2004 and was completed in early 2006 with regards to the detailed design and is still going on for railway equipment tenders.
Given the area that the project is going through, environment is a crucial issue. Although noise levels will be lower than the ones generated by the rolling stock operated up until 2005 on the jointed existing track, an approximate length of 4000m of noise protection walls will be erected.
Running through highly renowned sites such as Nantua and the Sylans lakes at the foot of cliffs, special measures have to be taken to ensure preservation while making sure safety is maintained and reinforced. Discreet safety nets will be installed in the slopes facing the lake so that in a few years time they will be hardly noticeable.
Although diesel trains are prohibited in these areas, the track will be made water-tight when passing close to water resources used for human consumption. Drastic safety measures are taken while the works are performed, such as closing down sensitive water resources and providing alternative ones for the duration of the works.
One of the main characteristics of the project is to use the existing platform. Besides the new viaduct in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine there is only one location where the project gets away from the existing platform. Leaving Bourg-en-Bresse the track was supposed to follow a large curve which would allow a maximum speed of 140km/h for a few kilometres. But during the design phase, a European-protected species was discovered in the area and, to ensure its preservation, the project had to be changed and the speed had to be brought down from 140 to 120km/h.
In early 2005, the project was declared as ‘urgent and in the public interest’. This allows expropriation should the need arise. Until now, all properties have been bought after negotiation based on market price. Tender procedures for the civil works were carried out in early 2005 and bids were received in October of the same year. Bid analysis and negotiations took place at the end of 2005 – early 2006.
Financing for the construction phase was eventually totally secured by mid-2006, and authorization to begin with the works was received in September 2006. Civil works contractors were notified in November 2006 and the final detailed design for civil works began while all safety measures related to the works, such as road traffic and water resources protection, were implemented.
Railway equipment tenders for track, catenary systems, telecommunications and GSM-R will be released during 2007.
The civil works are mainly modifications and adjustments to the electrification gauge of 80 bridges and 11 tunnels, totalling 7.4km in length. Some bridges will be totally rebuilt.
Tunnels will be made water tight, carefully avoiding disturbance to existing water paths that feed surroundings villages. They will also be made safer by installing lighting, water tanks and by keeping rail-road fire engines ready to intervene at specific locations along the line and through other safety measures.
Because of all the safety risks involved, each and every level crossing has been carefully studied and actions will be taken to cancel as many of them as possible. Altogether, 15 level crossings will be suppressed.Two level crossings will be replaced by special undertrack paths for cattle, while two others, classified as potentially dangerous, will be replaced by bridges.
Six passing loops shall be lengthened and renewed and a new TGV station shall be built in Nurieux to ease transportation to and from the French plastic valley of Oyonax.
Arriving in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, a new bridge will allow trains to proceed on to Genève without reversing. Because of the rather steep slope (a gradient of about 2%), a shunting track with a buffer stop will take on any drifting train.
A multimodal platform with three new car parks will allow easy transfer between TGVs, regional trains and buses in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine. The ‘flying saucer’ shaped new station, besides being most functional, is also environmentally friendly, requiring very little energy to cool or heat.
Curves will be eased to allow for a slight increase in speed and a smoother ride. Maximum speeds will be 120km/h leaving Bourg-en-Bresse going to Ceyzeriat and in the Mornay tunnel until the train reaches Brion. For the remaining part of the line, the speed will be 80 to 100km/h depending on the curves and gradient. 65km of track (LWR) and ballast will be totally renewed. The line will be electrified at 2×25 KV 50 Hz with the construction of a 2×25 KV substation at Cise-Bolozon. A rigid catenary system shall be implemented in the longer tunnels and the line will be re-signalled with automatic block colour light signal and KVB beacons. Solid state pc-based interlockings will be installed at each passing loop and the line will be remote-controlled from Bellegarde-sur-Valserine where the same SSI equipment, with a human-machine interface, will be installed in a brand new cabin. A GSM-R telecommunication system will also be implemented to reinforce safety. Works completion date is set for the second half of 2009.
Jean-Damien Bierre is an ENSEEIHT graduate (electrotechnical engineer). He led important projects abroad for French firms (subways of Hong Kong and Athens) and was a manager of the Danish branch of Spie Enertrans from 1997-2004. He joined Réseau Ferré de France (RFF) in 2004 as Project Manager of the Haut Bugey mission.
Issue 3 2005, Past issues / 23 August 2005 /
The eyes of the railway world are on France as it builds the latest addition to its successful high speed network – the TGV Est line that will link Paris with eastern France and beyond. The €3 billion first phase of the programme, which commenced in spring 2002, is placing heavy demands on civil engineers and railway infrastructure suppliers working to tight schedules to ensure the network opens in 2007.
The entire rail for the project is being supplied by Corus. In this article, three of the company’s senior executives explain how Corus is meeting the technical and logistic challenges posed by TGV Est.
During the summer of 2005, rail production for the high profile TGV Est project in France is reaching its peak. In the month of June alone, the Corus rail mill at Hayange in the Fensch Valley rolled 11,000 tonnes of rail for the first phase of the programme. By early next year, Corus will have supplied more than 86,000 tonnes of new rail to its customer, Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF).
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