New French train stations to be realised with a PPP scheme thanks to EU co-funded project

The European Union will support with over €2 million from the TEN-T Programme studies to ensure a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme can be used in 2014 to finance the design, building and operation/maintenance of two brand new railway stations in France. The two new stations will be located in Nîmes and Montpellier, along an important high speed railway line.

The project, which was selected for funding under the 2011 TEN-T Annual Call, will study the possibilities of implementing a PPP scheme in order to build and operate the new Montpellier Odysseum and Nîmes Manduel railway stations. The two new stations are a key part of the larger “Contournement ferroviaire de Nîmes et Montpellier” (CNM) project, which will provide additional capacity on the Nîmes-Montpellier section and reduce the travel time on the existing Mediterranean high speed line.

The legal, technical and financial studies supported by the project will be used to find the most efficient and effective model of involving the private sector as a third party in the overall task of building, funding, maintaining and managing of the two new stations.

The project will be managed by the Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency and is set to be completed by the end of 2014.

For more information: http://tentea.ec.europa.eu/en/ten-t_projects/ten-t_projects_by_country/france/2011-fr-94036-s.htm or e-mail: [email protected]