The Grand Paris Express project highlights the need to mobilize advanced technical solutions to guarantee the reliability, efficiency and safety of new transport networks. In this context, performance levers for traction, catenary and signalling systems are at the heart of the challenge to ensure a sustainable and optimized infrastructure.
Traction system for lines 16 and 17
As a key lever for infrastructure performance, Ineo Rail and Ineo UTS (experts in the design, construction and integration of urban transport systems, specializing in power supply, traction, signalling and supervision) are involved in the installation and commissioning of the traction system for lines 16 and 17.
As part of this contract, they will supply and install the traction equipment needed to power the trains on the lines and the infrastructure maintenance vehicles housed at the Aulnay-sous-Bois operations center. All traction equipment is installed in some thirty substations along the tracks, both in stations and in ancillary structures.
Future GPE trains will operate at 1500 Vdc (direct current volts), twice the DC voltage of the Paris metro or tramway (750 Vdc), enabling metros destined for more distant suburbs to cover ever longer distances between stations, in ever shorter times. The traction system refers to all the equipment and technologies used to power trains on mass transit network lines, providing them with the energy they need to accelerate.
Thanks to traction, the AC energy supplied by Enedis is transformed into DC energy, enabling trains to run autonomously, safely and energy-efficiently.
The traction system is essential to the automation of the Grand Paris Express, where it guarantees reliable, continuous power distribution for fast, regular travel.
The catenary, a specific infrastructure that supplies power to electric trains.
It consists of a set of overhead cables suspended above the tracks, through which the necessary current, supplied by the traction system upstream, is delivered downstream to the rolling stock via a pantograph.
Ineo SCLE Ferroviaire, an expert in electrification and signalling for public and rail transport, is responsible for the supply and installation of catenary systems, line equipment and local signalling for the operating center for the future GPE metro lines 16 and 17, at Aulnay-sous-Bois.
As part of this project, Ineo SCLE Ferroviaire is also in charge of the consortium made up of Unifer and GCF.
One of the Group's challenges is to manage the multiplicity of track types associated with different maintenance constraints: post-mounted tracks, embedded tracks, ballasted and concrete tracks, washing machine tracks...
Each type of track requires different approaches and solutions to meet specific maintenance and operational requirements.
Equans France's expertise in the implementation of complex rail projects, as a contractor, has demonstrated its ability to adapt to these diverse configurations while meeting performance requirements.
Signalling, another key component of GPE infrastructure performance.
At the Aulnay infrastructure maintenance site (SMI), this signalling system, implemented by Ineo SCLE Ferroviaire teams, coordinates the movements of the maintenance vehicles that will operate from the SMI on the different parts of the network.
Among the GPE's 6 operating centers spread over the entire 200 km network, the one at Aulnay-sous-Bois will be the brain of lines 16 and 17, essential to the development of the East and North of the MGP.
Monitoring and regulating traffic in real time, returning to normal in the event of an incident, technical maintenance of trains (brakes, air conditioning, interior furnishings), interior and exterior cleaning of trains, maintenance of stations, service structures, tracks and signalling: all these functions will be carried out 24/7 from the Aulnay operations center.
Still on the subject of power supply, but this time also including the energy requirements of signalling, ventilation and lighting systems, Equans, through its Bouygues Energies & Services entity, has contributed to several HVLV projects on line 18, and sections of lines 16 and 17.
High Voltage and Low Voltage are categories of electrical voltage used to describe the voltage levels in power supply systems. High voltage is used to power traction motors, while low voltage is used to power auxiliary train systems such as lighting, air conditioning and control systems.
Over and above the challenge of performance and meeting energy delivery deadlines, HVLV systems are a key link in line safety, given their redundant, back-up systems, and their monitoring and control by HTA automation and supervision systems, at every level of the installation.
“ Equans is proud of the renewed trust placed in us by Société du Grand Paris. We're delighted to be putting our expertise at the disposal of these new lines and infrastructures. Contributing to the Grand Paris Express projects reflects a broader ambition for our teams: to play an active and concrete part in the energy transition, development and sustainable growth of territories through mobility. ”
