In brief: Keolis will operate Narbonne transit

Posted on March 11, 2008 by Matthieu Desiderio

New contract including environmental constraints

Keolis, a subsidiary of SNCF, the French National Railway operator, recently won the call for tender to operate the urban and periurban public transport network in Narbonne, in the southwest of France. The periurban area includes 18 township governments, which have a total of 80,000 inhabitants.

The contract will be eight years long, and is evaluated at €45 million over its full length: starting September 1, 2008, Keolis will operate 63 vehicles, and manage 85 employees. The contract also includes paratransit services, the transport mode dedicated to persons with disabilites, and transportation on demand service (eventually when regular lines occupancy is low, such as nights and week-ends).

Also, a new way to include environmental consideration has been added to the contract: Keolis will be partly paid depending on the carbon dioxyde emissions of the Narbonne area transit network. Environment now has a real meaning in transportation contracts.

Keolis, leader in mid-sized cities’ transit networks operation

After winning couple new contracts in Dreux, and Aix les Bains, and renewing existing ones in Alençon, and Alès, the new contract in Narbonne allows Keolis to maintain its leadership in mid-sized cities countrywide. The Keolis subsidiary that will operate the network is Keolis Aude (Trans Aude).

Prior to this new contract, it had 65 employees, a €4 million turnover, and was operating 55 buses. Keolis is the first private operator of public transport in France and is owned at 45.5% by SNCF. The group employs a total of 30,000 people, and realized a turnover of €2.7 billion in 2007.