SNCF: up to EUR 9 billion worth of HSR trains

Posted on December 19, 2007 by Matthieu Desiderio

Following-up with the article about the TGV which will top 360 kph in commercial speed (see here), I recently read that SNCF, the French railway operator, will have to replace most of the rolling stock operated since the 1980′s. SNCF plans to replace around 15 to 20 TGV trains per year between 2014 and 2020, a contract worth EUR 7 to 9 billion.

An invitation to tender will be sent at the end of 2008. Three to five proposals may be received by SNCF: the most serious companies are Alstom (AGV), Bombardier (Zefiro), and Siemens (Velaro). Talgo, a smaller Spanish rolling stock manufacturer and the Japanese Shinkansen could also bid but both will definitely be behind the “big-three” and Ansaldo (Italy), CAF (Spain) or Stadler (Switzerland) may also be part of the bidders.

Among the three major opponents, all of them will offer High Speed Rail technologies capable of commercial speeds up to 360 kph. The real technological advance is that power units providing motivity will be divided in all train cars, instead of only being in the locomotive and will allow more room and comfort for passengers. However, we are still a year away from the tender and the first Alstom AGV could be coming out of the factory early 2008: we will then have actual things to discuss…