Eiffage, through its subsidiary Eiffage Rail, and Captrain were selected as a consortium by SNCF Réseau to carry out track regeneration work, the subject of a call for tenders launched by the manager of the national rail network in 2022. These contracts represent a total firm amount of nearly 415 million euros (80% Eiffage share), which could exceed 790 million euros, after activation of the renewable annual tranches.
A first contract concerns the replacement of track switches on the Atlantic, North Europe and South East European high-speed lines. The duration of the firm tranche is four years (2025 to 2028), supplemented by two optional years (2029 and 2030).
Between 2025 and 2028, 49 track devices will be replaced, on weekends, with a total shutdown of rail traffic, mobilizing significant material and human resources: more than a hundred employees per work period.
A second contract concerns the regeneration of classic line tracks by industrial method across the entire national rail network. The firm tranche is for a period of three years (2025 to 2027) with the possibility of three optional years (2028 to 2030).
Between 2025 and 2027, 524 kilometers of roads will be regenerated throughout the country. The work will be carried out mainly at night with Eiffage Rail factory trains and Captrain traction means operated by some 400 employees from the two companies. These various high-performance machines allow the renewal of the rail, ballast, and sleepers over a distance of approximately 1,000 meters of track per work period and guarantee the reopening of the line to commercial train traffic at the end. of each period.
Note on this second contract, the deployment of innovations aimed, in particular, at promoting recycling and reducing the carbon footprint of operations. For example, panels (rails and sleepers) will be cut and reused on site and from 2027, hydrogen generation and storage machines will enable dual-mode power supply – electricity/hydrogen – for locomotives.
At a time when SNCF Réseau is committing very substantial resources to the regeneration of the French rail network, these two contracts reinforce the place occupied by Eiffage Rail and Captrain within the country’s rail industrial sector.
