In Lyon, the new “heart of the reactor” of the Paris-Lyon TGV line is being put in place

The Paris-Lyon high-speed line, shut down this weekend for modernization work, will now be managed from a single operations center in Lyon, which will monitor the approximately 240 trains that operate from the resumption of traffic on Wednesday. now travel daily on its rails.

Previously located in Paris, this is the new “reactor core” of the TGV line, summarizes the CEO of SNCF Réseau Matthieu Chabanel during a visit open to the press on Sunday. A vast building “very secure” built a year ago, he adds.

New signaling system

In the control room, eyes are glued to the giant black screen on which a pink border imitates the route of this 460km long line, one of the busiest in Europe and which alone represents a third of the traffic. national high speed, according to SNCF.

It is here that around a hundred SNCF agents will now control day and night the switches of the line between Paris and Lyon but also between Lyon and Valence, will monitor the position of the TGVs in real time, and will ensure their good electricity supply.

Since Friday evening, no TGV has been running on the line. SNCF is installing a new signaling system, ERTMS, which will increase the frequency of trains to 16 per hour per direction by 2030, compared to 13 currently.

Punctuality and security

This new system must also improve train punctuality, safety, and above all, enable the interoperability of European networks since the countries of the European Union must gradually equip their core lines.

While waiting for the resumption of traffic scheduled for Wednesday at 5 a.m., tests are being carried out in this control room in Lyon to ensure in particular that the 57,000 cables, which must be reconnected to nearly 250 signal stations, are working correctly.

“Until now, since 2016, the work was done at night between the last and first train”recalls Matthieu Chabanel. “But it was impossible to carry out this big action little by little, we needed four days”he adds.

The installation of the ERTMS system on the Paris-Lyon line will cost 820 million euros, including 120 million financed by Europe, the rest being paid by SNCF Réseau. The new operations center in Lyon alone cost 50 million euros, including all the equipment. Its location must remain secret in order to “to avoid sabotage, actions…”slips Matthieu Chabanel to AFP.