Colas Rail, as leader, and TSO have been selected in a consortium by SNCF Réseau for the mechanised renewal of ballast on the Atlantique Nord and Paris Sud-Est high-speed lines, at a cost of 200 million Euros.

The contract is for four firm years to modernise 209 km of track, plus three optional years for the remaining 222 km. A total of 3,500,000 tonnes of ballast will be renewed over 431 km of track. Catenary and signalling lockout and adjustment operations will also be carried out.

Significant human and material resources from Colas Rail and TSO will be mobilised. As a result, 150 employees, working mainly at night, will have nearly thirty machines at their disposal, including a RM900 ballast cleaning machine, to guarantee operational performance under the conditions of safety, reliability and quality expected by the customer.

In line with its commitment to respecting the environment, the consortium will implement solutions designed to reduce the carbon footprint of its operations, notably through the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil-based fuel, a Start & Stop system designed to stop internal combustion engines when parked, a fleet of electric vehicles, low-carbon site facilities and autonomous secondary facilities. A carbon footprint measurement tool compliant with the global GHG Protocol standard will enable the environmental impact to be calculated accurately.

“Colas Rail is very proud to have won this high output renewal contract.This success testifies to the renewed confidence of our customer SNCF Réseau. In this way, we're going to help improve regularity and increase the frequency of train movements on the French rail network”, explains Jean-François Milleron, Deputy General Manager France Europe Colas Rail.

"The TSO Group is proud to be part of this new chapter in Ballast Renewal (BR) on high-speed lines, which is strategic for the quality of the network and TGV (high-speed train) passenger traffic. Working alongside SNCF RÉSEAU and our partner Colas Rail, we will be keen to pursue our continuous improvement approach to ensure that we continue production safely and without any impact on traffic.”, says Romuald Hugues, Chairman of TSO.

The partnership between Colas Rail and TSO, which began more than thirty years ago with railway work trains, continued in 2017 with the response to a major task launched by SNCF Réseau: to industrialise the regeneration of catenaries with new work trains. A technical challenge consisting of renovating, in a maximum of seven years and without stopping operations, a large proportion of the ageing catenaries that supply electricity to trains running on the national rail network. To meet this challenge, Colas Rail and TSO Caténaires have created two work trains that adapt according to the voltage of the line (25,000 V and 1,500 V). Unique in the world, this project has also boosted performance in the areas of safety and quality. It represents a revolution in rail construction projects.