Paris-Bordeaux High Speed line – France

Put Paris 2h04 from Bordeaux: such was the challenge met by SYSTRA in the context of the South Europe Atlantic (SEA) high speed line project. The connection of the Atlantic coast with European high speed was the aim of this extraordinary worksite.

The Paris – Bordeaux line has transformed the face of transport in the west of France. With 302km of new line and trains moving at 320km/h, SEA cuts journey times by more than half and brings regions and populations closer together.

All SYSTRA’s professions contributed to this HSL, which mobilised a maximum of 400 people of the Group simultaneously for 10 years. It is the projet for which SYSTRA has had the greatest number of high speed assignments in Europe, from design to tests, via project management, the monitoring and coordination of works, operations, safety and training workers in charge of construction.

During the project, we were involved in the creation of 488 large structures, including all the land rights-of-way, the systems (track, catenary, telecommunication) as well as in the design and deployment for the first time in France of a TVM 300/ERTMS level 2 double signalling in order to welcome trains from the whole of Europe.

Constructed in just six years, a new record in France, the SEA line emerged thanks to the company COSEA. The latter, led by VINCI and in which SYSTRA was a stakeholder, managed the biggest public-private partnership in France’s history.

The adventure will continue until 2061: the Group has a 30% stake in the company MESEA, responsible for the maintenance of the HSL. These requirements were integrated at all stages of the project in order to optimise the cost and efficiency of operations. On a daily basis, more than 200 colleagues are present on the ground to ensure the excellence of this infrastructure, used in 2018 by more than 6 million passengers.