FRENCH secretary of state for transport Mr Alain Vidalies and the president of the region of New Aquitaine (Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes) Mr Alain Rousset announced on November 29 that the regional government will take control of three loss-making inter-city services from French National Railways (SNCF).

FRENCH National Railways (SNCF) will introduce on December 1 a new online compensation scheme for passengers whose journeys on TGV or inter-city services are delayed by 30 minutes or more.

HACKTRAIN’s third annual hackathon, which seeks to solve issues within the rail industry through innovation, took place from November 4-6 on two separate journeys, one across Britain and another across Europe.

THE International Union of Railways (UIC) is set to participate in seven events at this weekend’s COP22 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Marrakech to highlight rail’s role as part of the solution to climate change.

THE French Senate approved draft legislation on November 7 authorising the implementation of the CDG Express airport rail link to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

A consortium of Alstom and Bombardier is now the only bidder in the running for a contract to supply up to 371 new trains for the Paris RER network after CAF was eliminated from the competition.

SNCF Network has become the first European infrastructure manager to finance rail investment through green bonds, confirming on October 27 that it has raised €900m through a green bond issue.

CONSTRUCTION of the extension of Paris tram-train line T4 to Montfermeil was officially launched on October 18 with a groundbreaking ceremony in Clichy-sous-Bois, which was attended by France’s minister for cities, youth affairs and sport Mr Patrick Kanner, Ile-de-France regional president Mrs Valérie Pécresse, president of the département of Seine-Saint-Denis Mr Stéphane Troussel, and Mr Alain Krakovitch, president of SNCF Transilien.

FRANCE’s industry minister Mr Christophe Sirugue told a meeting of union representatives and elected officials in Belfort on October 4 that the French government will fund an order for 15 TGV Euroduplex trains and 20 locomotives to save Alstom’s plant in the town from closure.

IRJ at InnoTrans 2016: German Rail (DB), French National Railways (SNCF) and Italian State Railways (FS) have agreed to establish a permanent governance structure for the exchange of timetable and fares data.