FRANCE: Another step towards restoration of commercial services over the 89 km route from Nancy to Contrexéville was taken at the end of June with signature by the Grand Est région and the Nova 14 consortium of the 22-year concession announced on May 24 for rehabilitation and operation of the line.
The event was followed on July 5 by signature of a €90m loan from the European Investment Bank towards the cost of restoring the line, which totals nearly €200m. EIB is the lead financier for the project, with further funds being sourced in equal amounts from Crédit Industriel et Commercial, La Banque Postale, La Caisse d’Epargne Grand Est and Nord LB.
The Nova 14 concession company is formed of NGE Concessions (50%), operator Transdev (20%) and Banque des Territoires, part of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations Group (30%).
Renovation work will be in the hands of nine companies from the NGE group. TSO, TSO Signalisation, Offroy and Sages Rail will be responsible for the railway elements of the work and Muller TP, NGE GC and SLD TP will handle earthworks, civil engineering and diversion of utilities. NGE Ingénierie will deal with design, along with Setec and JFS Architectes.
Rehabilitation will include work on the formation and track relaying, as well as repairs to bridges and drainage. Other work will include installation of automated signalling using Stadler’s Eurolocking equipment, modernisation of level crossings and improvements to stations.
The contractors will establish a main worksite and depot at Mirécourt, and work is expected to take three and a half years. Up to 300 jobs will be created.
Services will be operated by a dedicated subsidiary of Transdev Rail (75%) and NGE Exploitation (25%) that will employ 65 staff, including 23 train drivers. Rolling stock will consist of Series X73500 diesel railcars which will be maintained at Mirécourt.
Around 550 000 passengers a year are expected to use the line, which will be served by up to 16 return trips a day from Nancy to Pont-Saint-Vincent and 14 from Nancy to Contrexéville; journey time from Nancy to Contrexéville will be 1 h 10 min. Before the line closed in 2016 it was served by just six return trips a day.
President of NGE Concessions Thierry Bodard said ‘the Grand Est région has a clear goal to revive the Nancy – Contrexéville line, and we are proud to have been chosen to support it in developing sustainable, low-carbon mobility in the area.’
Transdev France CEO Edouard Hénaut noted that ‘this is the first rail contract that Grand Est has granted to a private operator, Nova 14, since rail transport was opened up to competition, and the first contract in France under a new model that enables a single service provider to operate rail services and also manage the infrastructure.’
