On February 28, French President François Hollande participated at the inauguration ceremony of the Sud Europe Atlantique high-speed line that links Tours and Bordeaux.
The 302 km line has 40 km of rail connections to the existing railway network, 24 viaducts and 500 other structures and is crossing 6 departments and 3 regions. The project was constructed by Lisea consortium, composed of VINCI Concessions (leader), the Caisse des Dépôts with its subsidiary CDC Infrastructure and AXA Private Equity (infrastructure funds).
The consortium signed a EUR 7.8 billion concessionary contract for 50 years that covered the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the 302 kilometres high-speed rail link between Tours and Bordeaux. The concessionaire will be remunerated by means of charges paid by train operators using the infrastructure.
The line will be opened on July 2, cutting time travel between Paris and Bordeaux to 2 hours, from more than currently 3 hours.
In September 2016, Alstom unveiled the first TGV 2N2 Euroduplex Atlantique that will operate on Sud Europe Atlantique high-speed line and by 2019, SNCF will put into service around 40 L’Océane units. The new trains, manufactured by Alstom, are faster and enable the reduction of the travel time, provide by 22% more seats (556 seats of which 158 at first class and 398 at second class) and benefit from improved comfort with more room for luggage, an area specially arranged for children and a passenger information point.
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