Rhône to Rhine High-Speed Rail line will be delivered on time. This is what Réseau Ferré de France (RFF), the owning and managing company of the French railway network, annouced early July. The line will be entering commercial service by December 2011.

Five years of work to link Rhône and Rhine regions faster than ever

Started in 2006, the first phase of the project consists in the construction of 141 kilometers with 3,500 workers on sites, from Villers-les-Pots (east of Dijon, north of Lyon), to Petit-Croix, near Belfort (east of France). RFF guaranteed early July 2008 that the construction will be finished on time. RFF expects to have an annual traffic of 12 million passengers, up from 10 million right now on the regular intercity trains, quite slower than TGV trainsets.

Groundworks are 80% terminated (24 millions cubic metres) and about 50 bridges and tunnels (over 160 total) are ready. By spring 2009, RFF will start to equip some parts of the line with catenaries, ballast, and railtracks. However, RFF explained there could be no more delays, since 2007 summer weather did not allow to work efficiently everyday.

Even though on-time, costs will be over estimates

The total cost of this new high-speed rail link is estimated at €2.31 billion, shared between the French State (€751 million), 17 local Governments in the Franche-Comté, Bourgogne, and Alsace regions (€653 million), RFF (€642 million), the European Union (€198 million), and the Swiss Government (€66 millions).

However, RFF reviewed its costs, and estimated the total expected budget for the construction of the line will be exceeded by €48 million. This is mainly due to higher commodities costs but only includes the costs of the first eastern section of the line. Until 2010, costs increases for the whole project might reach €330 million (more than 12% of the forecasted costs).

References

  • Article: La LGV Rhin-Rhône sera à l’heure, Le Moniteur, Jul. 9, 2008: here
  • Article: Rhin-Rhône: la hausse des matières premières alourdit la facture de la LGV, Le Moniteur, Aug. 5, 2008: here

References from the Transport Information Group

High-Speed Rail coverage on the Transport Information Group: