Last rails laid on the SEA HSL

23 December 2015 - Projects update and handover - France

On 23 December 2015, one year after the first rails were laid in the Charente department, the SEA HSL project teams laid the last continuous welded rails on the Tours-Bordeaux SEA HSL line in the Gironde department north of the Dordogne Viaduct. This milestone, achieved on schedule, heralds the upcoming completion of the railway equipment works. They are, however, not yet finished. The railway project continues to progress to the north and south of the alignment at a pace of 650 metres per day. Several works phases follow the laying of the continuous welded rails: ballasting, track lifting, installation of the overhead line (the contact wire that supplies trains with power) and final inspections and adjustments.
This work will be carried out between now and mid-2016. Dynamic testing of the Tours-Bordeaux SEA HSL will get under way in the second half of 2016 and the line is expected to begin operating in the summer of 2017.