GCF France. Starting from Paris

The Hors Suite project kicks off in the French capital

The 2025 GCF-Transalp railway project begins in Paris, at Gare de l'Est. In the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul district, just a few hundred meters from Montmartre, the first "Hors Suite" renovation site of the year is set to begin.

The work involves the complete renewal of the track and ballast over approximately 2.5 kilometers of line 2, between Paris Gare de l'Est and Pantin stations, in the eastern suburbs of Paris.

Due to its location (Gare de l'Est, with 40 million passengers annually, is the fifth busiest station in Paris) and the working conditions, the project will be carried out with the utmost care to minimize the impact on the heavy passenger and commercial train traffic.

For this reason, the P95 renewal train and the C75 ballast cleaner will only operate over four weekends, from 11:30 PM on Friday to 4:30 AM on Monday, when the intense commercial train traffic on the adjacent ten tracks is suspended. "Furthermore," explains Sabino Carbone from GCF France's management, "the length of the worksite trains will be limited to 650 meters to avoid interfering with adjacent tracks connected by switches to the working track."

During weekdays, "light" night work will be conducted, which does not require the P95 train or the C75 ballast cleaner: finishing, grinding, welding, thermal adjustment, and more.

"Special attention," continues Sabino Carbone, "will be given to noise reduction measures and maintaining cleanliness by systematically collecting waste and residual materials along the site and adjacent tracks, as the area is densely urbanized."

Off the tracks, a specific protocol will be followed to avoid causing traffic jams or disruptions in Paris due to road vehicles handling the unloading and storage of equipment.

The project's logistics base has been set up at Vaires station, where the main trains, complementary machinery (tampers, profilers, rail-road vehicles), and storage materials will be housed. Around 140 workers will be involved in this project.

Similarly, the last Hors Suite project of 2024 conducted by GCF-Transalp was located in another busy area.

On line 974 000, in the western suburbs of Paris, about 6 kilometers of track were modernized despite challenges such as tunnels, level crossings, and environmentally sensitive areas. In the "dense zone" between Saint-Cloud and Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche stations, GCF's powerful machines, the P95 train, and the C75 ballast cleaner successfully renewed 5,389 meters of track and restored 5,886 meters of ballast.

Finally, regarding Suite Rapide, the fifth and last 2024 project was completed in southern France, in Cavaillon.

On line 925 000, between Miramas (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Avignon (Vaucluse), around 230 workers renovated and restored nearly 40 kilometers of track.

This achievement brings the total to over 1,200 kilometers of French railway modernized and restored by GCF-Transalp in ten years of Suite Rapide.

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