FRANCE: Tenders are to be called in early 2025 for the renewal of SNCF’s night train fleet.
The plans were confirmed to local media by Pierre-Christophe Soncarrieu, the deputy director of the transport ministry’s Trains d’Équilibre du Territoire regional trains division responsible for overnight services. The long-awaited commitment to modernisation of the overnight fleet follows the earmarking of €150m for new stock by the parliamentary finance committee during October.
In 2021 the ministry set out a plan to introduce up to 10 new night train routes by 2030. This would require new rolling stock given the age of the existing fleet of couchette cars.
The plan recommended the delivery of 600 coaches and 60 locos over 10 years at cost of €1·5bn. So far SNCF has spent €91m refurbishing the couchette cars used on the current services, which carried around a million passengers in 2024.
Soncarrieu also said that an option for CAF to supply a further 20 Oxygène 200 km/h trainsets for the Bordeaux – Marseille TET route would be confirmed shortly.
