LGV SEA: more trains to satisfy growing demand
As operator of the Tours-Bordeaux high-speed line (LGV SEA), the second busiest high-speed line in France, VINCI Railways has seen a sharp increase in passenger numbers since the beginning of the summer compared with 2019. To meet this mobility demand, Franck Dubourdieu, Director of the TGV Atlantique at SNCF Voyageurs, has announced an increase of 9% in TGV capacity to the South-West thanks to five additional Océane trains from 2023.
Between June and August, 4.2 million passengers travelled on the Paris-Bordeaux line.
These five additional trains will enable four existing single trains to be twinned and become double trains, which corresponds to 1,100 additional seats for each. Doubling the trains rather than adding more will limit energy consumption, since the energy consumed by a double train is almost identical to a single train.
From 2023, the capacity of the TGV Atlantique route will therefore be increased by 9%, representing 3,000 to 4,000 additional seats per day, for a total of 20,000 additional seats per week on the Paris-Bordeaux section.
Five years after its opening, the LGV SEA has become the second busiest line in France, a real pillar for the development of the New Aquitaine region. In 2021, the line passed the 60 million passenger milestone. The opening of the line, which provides a two-hour link between Paris and Bordeaux, has generated a positive dynamic in the departments it passes through, a dynamic that VINCI Railways intends to develop further thanks to the capacity available on the line.
VINCI Railways, a VINCI Concessions subsidiary, designs, finances, build and operates transport infrastructure in the rail and urban rail sector. VINCI Concessions’ integrated model, working in synergy with all the VINCI Group’s business lines, allows VINCI Railways to successfully tackle a broad spectrum of projects: conventional and high-speed lines, metros, tramways, stations, track-guided transport and mobility systems. VINCI Railways offers public and private decision-makers its investment capacity and its know-how in optimising operational performance, upgrading of infrastructure and management of their environmental transition.
