According to an audit conducted this summer by SNCF Voyageurs, the delivery of the new RER D and E trains will be two years late. 255 trains were to be delivered by Alstom by mid-May 2021.
“An industrial shipwreck” : the delivery by the manufacturer Alstom of new trains for the RER D and E will be two years late, according to an audit by SNCF Voyageurs which aroused the anger of the president of the Ile-de-France transport authority, Valerie Pécresse. “According to the information provided by your teams, the delivery of the first RER NG trainset will be delayed to mid-May 2023 when it was originally scheduled for delivery in mid-2021.“, protests the president of Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) in a letter addressed to the CEO of SNCF obtained on Tuesday by AFP, confirming information from Les Echos. SNCF Voyageurs, who led the call for offers and operates the RER lines concerned, reacted to AFP, saying “deeply regret the delays accumulated in the deliveries by Alstom-Bombardier of the RER NG and share the dissatisfaction” d’IDFM.
To justify this delay, Alstom invoked according to Les Echos the “great technical complexity“, the evolution of the specifications as well as the impact of the health crisis. The manufacturer also claims to be determined to respect the new schedule set after an external audit, without giving a date. In total, Alstom and Bombardier , which have merged since the signing of the contract, are supposed to supply up to 255 new generation “NG” trains (125 for RER D and 130 for RER E), for an amount of 3.75 billion euros financed by IDFM.
“Organizational flaws”
“The audit carried out this summer by SNCF Voyageurs revealed repeated delays, mainly due to organizational flaws resulting from a manifest lack of mastery of the industrial process, inconceivable on the part of a world leader in the sector.“, writes Ms. Pécresse in a second letter to the attention of Henri Poupart-Lafarge, CEO of Alstom, denouncing a situation”totally unacceptable“.
The new generation trains (RER-NG) were ordered at the beginning of 2017 and the first should arrive on line D during the year, with the promise of improving comfort but also the punctuality of the new trains. “This industrial wreck seriously undermines the improvement in service expected by the millions of travelers using these lines on a daily basis and I demand that you mobilize at your own expense all the necessary means to remedy this.“, adds Ms. Pécresse, summoning the CEO of Alstom for a hearing before IDFM.
Delays and additional costs
In the missive addressed to the CEO of SNCF Jean-Pierre Farandou, Valérie Pécresse notes that the line operator has “not been able to prevent these successive schedule drifts“after having himself delayed the process by two and a half years with delays during the call for tenders.
It requires the SNCF to request 64 million euros in penalties for this delay on the first installment of the contract (1.55 billion euros) which concerns 71 trains. “Regarding late penalties, the provisions of the contract will be strictly applied.“, specified the subsidiary of the railway company to AFP. SNCF Voyageurs says that it sought from the call for tenders to preserve the interests of IDFM and to have carried out an audit as soon as the first delays were noted.
Bill of 3.8 billion to 5.4 billion euros
At the beginning of October, Ms. Pécresse had already protested against a new additional cost of 1.7 billion euros from SNCF Réseau on the site of a branch of the RER E, which is to extend line E to the west of Paris and notably includes a gigantic tunnel between Paris and La Défense.
Financed in particular by the Société du Grand Paris and the region, the bill for the site should increase from 3.8 billion to 5.4 billion euros according to Valérie Pécresse. SNCF Réseau invoked “modifications” and “additional constraints” (floods, demonstrations of yellow vests, Covid-19), hazards remaining “in an envelope of 30% of the initial costing“.
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