FRANCE: Paris regional transport authority Ile-de-France-Mobilités has set out revised plans to develop RER Line C, one of the busiest and most operationally challenging in the conurbation.
Line C is 176 route-km long and features six branches; it carries up to 540 000 passengers per day on 540 trains. Over recent years, reliability of Line C has suffered, partly because some sections are shared with other main line trains, including TGV and conventional inter-city and local trains.
Operator SNCF Transilien uses a fleet of 150 ageing Z2N double-deck EMUs, and replacement of this fleet remains a priority.
IdFM’s latest plans, set out at the end of March, envisage investment of €4bn in the route. Simplification of the service pattern is planned; the length of each trainset is to be reduced to cut dwell times and increase punctuality. Track remodelling and additional loops and crossovers are planned at several locations including Avenue-Henri-Martin, while Brétigny-sur-Orge station is to be wholly rebuilt to allow more services to run in the corridor between there and Juvisy.
IdFM says a key aim is to reduce the impact of delays and incidents by ensuring trains can be more easily turned back or rerouted to regulate the service.
The Z2N trainsets will be replaced by new Z2N NG trainsets from 2033, with 160 due to be procured. Two more depots are to be built to service this fleet, one at Brétigny-sur-Orge and another at Gennevilliers. The existing Line C workshops at Les Ardoines will be renovated and expanded.
Meanwhile, IdFM says it is to study a number of options aimed at simplifying operation of the line, and in particular assessing how best to serve the branches to Dourdan and St-Martin d’Etampes. Possible interventions could include increasing off-peak services and replacing the Z2N trainsets early with Regio 2N trainsets used on inter-regional trains, says IdFM.
