FRANCE: Infrastructure manager RFF has begun work on a new control centre for the Lorraine region at Pagny-sur-Moselle, due to enter service on April 5 2015. It is one of 16 that are to be built across the network by 2030, which by centralising control functions currently shared between 1 500 signalling centres should improve regulation and enable operating incidents to be resolved more quickly.
The first areas to be controlled from the new centre will be three in Metz and the route between Onville and Novéant on the line between Metz and Nancy. These are to be followed by Thionville, Nancy and Blainville, with studies currently underway.
The first phase of the Lorraine programme is costing a total of €137m, of which €10m is to be spent on the control centre itself. Resignalling between Onville and Novéant is costing €51m, while RFF is spending €76m in the Metz area to build a new signalling centre that will be remotely controlled from Pagny-sur-Moselle.
