Systra France appointed to support delivery of major French high-speed rail project

he new high-speed line is intended to improve connections between major cities in southwestern France (Photo: Systra)

The contract, awarded by GPSO (SNCF Réseau), covers the entire New Southwest Line (Ligne Nouvelle Sud-Ouest, LNSO).

Systra’s teams will support all stages of the project’s design and construction. The new high-speed line is intended to improve connections between major cities in southwestern France, reduce journey times, and provide a rapid, low-carbon transport solution. It responds to population growth in the Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions and the increasing demand for both daily and long-distance mobility.

The project will extend the existing Tours–Bordeaux high-speed line, which opened in 2017, creating enhanced links between Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie, and onwards to Montpellier, Perpignan, the Mediterranean, and the Spanish border at Irun via Bayonne.

The Bordeaux–Dax and Bordeaux–Toulouse branches will also be interconnected, enabling a direct high-speed connection between Toulouse and Spain.

The French State and 25 local authorities in Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine have signed the financing plan for phase one of the GPSO project, which has been declared to be of public utility. The plan amounts to €14 billion, with funding shared equally between the State and the local authorities, each contributing 40%, and the remaining 20% provided by the European Union.

The project is expected to strengthen rail networks at local, national and European levels, supporting wider economic development and decarbonisation goals.