As part of the Connecting Europe Facility-Transport-Blending facility call for projects, the European Commission is granting more than €31m in to the project led by SNCF Réseau to help improve the regularity of trains, their safety, frequency and ability to cross borders in Europe. Caisse des Dépôts is contributing the same amount via a €31m loan.
To meet current climate challenges, the European Commission has undertaken to ease the train traffic, less polluting than road traffic, between Member States. SNCF Réseau's project objective is to make train traffic safer by harmonising on-board signalling.
This project, which is unique in its scope, will improve the performance of rail traffic on main lines, freight lines and regional lines, which will ease train traffic in France as well as in the other States of the European Union.
Laurent Zylberberg, Director of Institutional, International and European Relations at Caisse des Dépôts
How? By installing the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) on board 252 vehicles (passenger trains and freight locomotives). Most of these trains will run, at least in part, on the French railway network. Once fully implemented throughout the European Union, the ERTMS will enable seamless cross-border rail transport. This will improve regularity, capacity and safety.
More about the Connecting Europe Facility-Transport-Blending facility call for proposals