The Grand Paris Express orbital express metro network will provide fast and frequent links between the suburbs of the French capital while relieving some of the city’s most congested urban rail lines. Keith Barrow looks at how this vast project is being implemented.

GRAND Paris Express has awarded the final two civil works contracts for the construction of the €3.7bn 33km Line 15 South linking Pont-de-Sèvres and Noisy Champs in the southern suburbs of Paris.

SPEAKING in Rennes at the inauguration of the new high-speed line from Le Mans to the city, new French president Mr Emmanuel Macron made it clear that his government will prioritise improvements to “daily everyday transport” and rather than new major projects invest in maintenance to overcome backlogs affecting rail, road and waterway networks in France.

FRENCH National Railways (SNCF) officially opened two extensions to its TGV Atlantique network on July 1: TGV Océane from Tours to Bordeaux and TGV Bretagne-Pays de la Loire from Le Mans to Rennes.

BOMBARDIER confirmed on June 23 that it has finalised a €867m order with French National Railways (SNCF) on behalf of Ile-de-France transport authority Stif for 83 Regio 2N double-deck EMUs for suburban services in the Paris area.

A French project to develop a concept for freight operations on light rail networks reached a milestone on the morning of June 13, when a tram was used to deliver merchandise to a retailer in St Etienne.

PLANS to expand the light rail network in Montpellier were unveiled by the president of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole Mr Philippe Saurel on June 7 as part of the city’s new mobility strategy.

WITH just 25 days remaining before the start of commercial operations on the Bretagne-Pays de la Loire and Sud Europ Atlantique high-speed lines, French National Railways (SNCF) carried out parallel high-speed test runs using two TGV sets on June 7.

IN an effort to attract 15 million customers to its flagship high-speed services by 2020, French National Railways (SNCF) announced a new strategy on May 29, which includes the rebranding of TGV to inOui.

GREATER Avignon and Tecelys, the company owned by local governments and is responsible for transport operation, has a selected a consortium of NGE Grou’s TSO subsidiary, Guintoli, EHTP, Agilis, and Alstom, to deliver civil and track works for the Avignon tramway in France.