Suite Rapide “astonishes” politicians and journalists

Official visit of the Sub-prefect of Avesnes at GCF-Transalp’s construction site

An extra-large renewal site. Suite Rapide also astonished many journalists and media of Northern France, who attended GCF-Transalp Renouvellement sites during the visit of Avesnes sur Helpe Sub-prefect Alexander Grimaud, Fourmiers Mayor Mickaël Hiraux, and Regional Counsellor Benoit Wascat.

Welcomed by the entire SNCF’s technical team and Transalp-GCF’s managers, the State representative was able to personally see the state of progress of the full renewal works of Leval – Hirson railway line that started on May 4th and will be completed by the end of October.

‘’Sites that cost 60 million Euros – underscored Sub-prefect Grimaud – you don’t see them every day and clearly witness the will of the State to invest in Avesnois’ infrastructures and also, an excellent sign of the recovery phase after the health crisis’’.

In addition to the ‘’outstanding’’ digit, many media of the French Region reported the numbers – defined as ‘’pharaonic’’- of the construction site that must remove every element of the ‘’outdated’’ line and replace it with 90 km of new tracks, 75,578 concrete sleepers of 300 kg each, 94,524 tons of stones. All the activity is carried out by a team of 500 members and with the use of ‘’giant’’ workshop trains and “impressive’’ machines, meaning two super-convoys dedicated to the renewal and replacement of the tracks – consisting of Matisa P95 train and 36 elements – and to the renewal of the screed - consisting of Matisa C75 2C ballast cleaner and other 42 support elements.

With almost 200 daily trains, the railway line is one of the busiest of Northern France in terms of passenger traffic and transport of freight. The renewal works will allow improving the overall line performances – underscored SNCF’s manager Christophe Blervaque during the press conference – facilitating maintenance operations and, therefore, increasing the regularity and quality of the service offered to passengers and offering greater comfort to local residents, thanks to the lower noise level of the welded tracks.

A near future: the renewal activity of the screed is almost completed on Leval- Hirson line, conducted at ‘’double pace’’ by the convoy led by Transalp’s C75 2C and the convoy led by GCF’s ballast cleaner C75. The other super convoy, P95 moving factory dedicated to the replacement of the tracks, completed its works in the past few days and after the usual maintenance operations, will be moved to Calais site where Suite Rapide will work on the renewal of the Boulogne – Calais section, at night.