Reopening of the Beauvais – Le Tréport railway line

The northern tip of the Côte d’Albâtre (literally the Alabaster Coast) in Normandy, France can once again be accessed by train: The Beauvais – Abancourt – Le Tréport–Mers-les-Bains line has officially resumed service after two years of rehabilitation supervised by SYSTRA.

It took more than 18 months to preserve a line, the future of which is now no longer under threat. The assignment included numerous challenges on the ground, in the context of a first outsourcing for SNCF in the Hauts-de-France region.

CUTTING JOURNEY TIMES

The hundred or so kilometres of the line can now be travelled at 100km/h, halving the journey time from Paris to Le Tréport. Previously, some sections could only be travelled at 30km/h due to the weakness of the infrastructure.

As project manager of the site, we have supervised all the rehabilitation operations, including ballast renewals, massive replacement of wooden crossings, or even the track lifting operations. The regional rails which could not be maintained were replaced with reusable rails, reducing the costs and environmental impact of the project. Works were also carried out on the replacement of hydraulic structures under the track, the renovation of level crossings and the improvement of platforms and stations. A complete overhaul of the signalling was also part of our assignment.

A FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY

The environmental aspect of the project was a key concern for the SYSTRA project team. In terms of waste management, the great majority of sleepers and rails that were not reused were recycled by specialists.