THE Centre-Val de Loire region has presented plans to create France’s first Regional Metropolitan Express Service (Serm). The plan will increase service frequencies by 2040 on the eight lines serving the conurbation of Tours, which has a population of 520,000.

Centre-Val de Loire was the first region to submit its detailed plans for a Serm network to the government. Planned projects in the cities of Toulouse, Rouen and Strasbourg have since followed. The proposed Tours network was the subject of presentation given on January 28 during a conference organised by Objectif RER Métropolitains, an association of local authorities developing Serm projects that also includes infrastructure manager SNCF Network amongst its members.

Most of the lines serving Tours currently have fewer than 10 services a day in each direction calling at all stations. The Serm project will phase in an hourly (or better) service between 05.00 and 23.00 on weekdays in three stages.

In 2030 service frequencies on the lines to Port-de-Piles and Chinon will be improved using the existing fleet, with infrastructure investment including a turnback facility at Port-de-Piles. This stage is costed at between €58m and €78m, mostly for new stations. New interchanges will be built at Joué-Gutenberg on the lines to Chinon and Loches, and at Les Gués de Veigné on the line to Loches.

New BEMU fleet

From 2030 to 2035 the region intends to replace all of its 16 two-car class X 72500 DMUs and 20 class X 73500 diesel railcars with BEMUs, as well as expanding the fleet to further boost service frequencies. The new trains should be delivered in time for the second, and most significant, phase of the project.

In 2035 the lines from Tours to Bléré-La Croix, Château-du-Loir, Loches, Blois and Saumur will benefit from an hourly stopping service, with a half-hourly peak service provided to Amboise, on the line to Blois, and Saumur. While most services will use the current terminus in Tours, a new cross-city service will be created from Blois to Saumur, serving a new interchange with the city’s light rail network at Tours-Verdun, estimated to cost between €43m and €60m.

In total, the second stage of the Serm project is costed at between €182m and €334m, mostly for infrastructure work and stations. The current maximum speed of 85km/h on the line to Loches will be raised at a cost of €88m, while a new stop is planned at Mettray on the line to Château-du-Loir.

€750m project

The final stage will be implemented around 2040, with the introduction of an hourly stopping service on the line to Vendôme, as well as a half-hourly peak service to Loches and to Rivarennes on the line to Chinon. This stage is costed at between €197m and €366m, mostly for infrastructure work that includes doubling single-track sections and adding a second passing loop at Veigné on the line to Loches.

The total investment required to create the Tours Serm network, excluding rolling stock, is estimated at between €411m and €746m. Discontinuous overhead electrification will be introduced to recharge the BEMU fleet, notably at the turnback points of Chinon, Loches, Vendôme and Château-du-Loir. Annual operating costs are expected to rise by between €70m and €95m by 2040.

The Centre-Val de Loire region and the greater Tours local authority will be responsible for funding new infrastructure (with a contribution from central government), rolling stock, and increased operating costs. Other local authorities will fund the construction of new interchanges, with those to be built near motorways expected to attract private finance.

The main question hanging over project finance at present is the central government budget, finally approved on February 2 following almost two years of political disagreement, but the state contribution does not form a major part of Serm finance. Several regions, including Brittany, have been seeking government permission to introduce a local payroll tax to fund public transport projects, as is already the case in the Paris region and elsewhere.

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