Since the installation of the “25,000 volt catenary rapid suite” factory train, by SNCF Réseau and its partners TSO Caténaires, Colas and Geismar in 2019, this is the first time that such an accident has occurred.
The fifteen workers who work on board this very particular 240m long machine, equipped with cranes to install and remove the catenary armaments (made up of the electrically conducting copper wire and the carrier cable to which it is attached by a pendulum), but also self-propelled nacelles in which they are installed, up to 6 meters above the ground, are very specialized and trained in the repetition of very technical and precise movements.
Made up of around fifty employees in total, the team that operates the factory train travels throughout France, each time the catenaries need to be renewed on a portion of the line. They are then housed near a “life base”, in this case, for this construction site, near La Seyne station.
A 58km section
This is a 58km section located between Bandol and Solliès-Pont, i.e. 55 work sessions at a rate of 800m per night, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., while the trains are not running and the network is of course off.
The machine which runs on HVO biofuel then progresses at very slow speed, to allow the workers, perched on their nacelle with all their tools, to dismantle the “arms”, a sort of brackets flanked at the top of the electric pole which supply the wire conductor of the catenary in electrons supplied by a nearby substation, but also the pendulum and the carrier cable. “There are two or three per workshop, for four workshops in total. Each team carries out the same task throughout the session, the idea being to optimize actions and working times. They are very qualified workers, that we train internally”explained Benoît Massé, the batch manager at TSO catenaries, on Thursday evening during a report from Var-morning.
-This factory train was imagined and designed in 2019 by SNCF Réseau and its partners, to accelerate the replacement of catenaries dating back around sixty years. By rationalizing the tasks cut by tandem, it makes it possible to be four times faster than before, when simple nacelles were used.
In one night, 24 weapons will be changed, at a rate of ten minutes per weapon. For SNCF Réseau, which is investing 50 million euros per year in the renewal of catenaries for 5 years and until 2026, it is a question of ensuring the reliability of power supply to the tracks, while more trains will circulate there, particularly in view of the new Line between Marseille and Ventimiglia.
A construction site which will not resume this Wednesday evening, after the tragedy, and for which SNCF network was not able to communicate a resumption date.
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