SOUTH EUROPE ATLANTIC HIGH SPEED LINE: THE RFF ANNOUNCES THE NAMES OF THE SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS

Paris, France – Following the meeting of the technical committee that was held 2007-11-09 in Bordeaux, Réseau Ferré de France (RFF) announced the names of the firms and consortiums whose applications to construct the South Europe Atlantic High Speed Line (SEA HSL) from Tours to Bordeaux under a concession agreement have been successful.The successful applicants are: Bouygues, Eiffage and Vinci.

Bouygues’ application comes from a consortium composed of:

Bouygues Travaux Publics SA (lead firm), DTP Terrassement SA (Bouygues), Quille SA (Bouygues), DV Construction SA, Bilfinger Berger BOT GmbH, Bilfinger Berger AG, Razel SA (Bilfinger)), Spie Batignolles SA , Seco Rail SA (Bouygues), Spie Rail SA (Bouygues), Alstom Transport SA , Barclays European Infrastructure (II) Limited (BEI2L), NIBC Infrastructure B.V., Meridiam Infrastructure Managers SARL, HSBC European Infrastructure Investments 2 SARL, Babcock & Brown Ltd.

Eiffage’s application will call upon the services of its own group companies for the purposes of this project.

Vinci’s application comes from a consortium composed of:

VINCI Concessions SA (lead firm), VINCI SA, SOJAS SAS, AXA Infrastructures investissements SAS and FCPR AXA INFRASTRUCTURE PARTNERS, The Deposit and Consignment Office.

On March 1st 2007, the RFF launched a public call for applications with a view to awarding a concession contract for the construction of the SEA HSL from Tours to Bordeaux.

The contract with the future concessionaire is due to be signed following the declaration of public utility for the Tours-Angoulême section of the line, for which the public inquiry is currently underway. The contract should be signed in early 2009, with the line scheduled to open to traffic in late 2015.

The estimated cost of this extremely important operation is expected to be 7.2 billion in current euros by 2015.

Thanks to this project, the two regions to the south-west of France will be able to benefit from the major advantages high speed rail transport brings in terms of sustainable development and territorial planning.

Réseau Ferré de France has thus proved its capacity to propose innovative financing solutions for the implementation of major projects thanks to Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).

The concessionary company will be responsible for designing, constructing, maintaining, renewing, operating and financing the South Europe Atlantic High Speed Line project at its own risk within the framework of national and EC regulations. In return, it will be the sole beneficiary of all the revenue generated by operating the line.

The South Europe Atlantic High Speed Line is a new 300 kilometre-long infrastructure running between Tours and Bordeaux, with an additional 40 kilometres of connections, which will help boost infrastructures in the areas served by the line. This line, which will bring Bordeaux to within just over 2 hours of Paris, will prolong the existing Atlantic HSL (Paris Montparnasse – Tours). By providing a new high-speed link between the south-west regions of France, the north of Europe and the Iberian Peninsula it will, amongst other things, help to free-up additional capacity for regional trains (TERs) and freight trains on the existing line.

Visit the South Europe Atlantic High Speed Line website