Contournement Nîmes – Montpellier

The programme was developed with the aim of providing the capacity for several new passenger services, including a 30% increase in the frequency of regional trains, as well as additional freight traffic. Additional benefits include a reduction in travel times for both national and international traffic traversing the route. The line is planned for mixed-use traffic by both TGV trains and freight. The Nîmes – Montpellier Bypass provides access onto the Spanish rail network as well as the proposed mixed LGV Montpellier–Perpignan, a new high-speed line between Montpellier and Perpignan. The journey from Montpellier to Paris takes less than three hours on the new line. In June 2012, SNCF Réseau entered a 25-year public-private partnership with the OC’VIA consortium for the financing, designing, building and maintenance of the line.

On 10 December 2017, the first commercial freight train used the route. The first passenger services to Montpellier Sud de France station commenced on 7 July 2018; full service to the station began on 15 December 2019 with the opening of Nîmes–Pont du Gard station.

Construction

Purpose

The Nîmes–Montpellier bypass was developed initially by French railway infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau, and later in conjunction with the OC’VIA consortium under a public-private partnership arrangement. Companies involved in the OC’VIA consortium include Bouygues Construction, Colas, SPIE Batignolles, Alstom Transport, Meridiam infrastructure, and the Public-Private Partnership Investment and Development Funds (FIDEPPP). The programme has been allocated €2.28 billion of funding. Reportedly, the construction process shall support approximately 30,000 jobs.

One stated aim of the programme is to provide capacity for several new services, including a 30 per cent increase in the frequency of regional train services; it also reduces travelling times for both national and international trips using the route. Specifically, the Nîmes and Montpellier bypass shall provide access onto the Spanish rail network via the Perpignan–Figueras line and to the Barcelona–Genoa corridor as well as the proposed new mixed high-speed line between Montpellier and Perpignan. It shall also increase freight capacity; it is anticipated that it the effect of taking roughly 3,000 trucks off the roads on each day and double the freight traffic using the railway within the space of ten years.

The Nîmes–Montpellier bypass is part of a bigger project, known as Priority Project 3, which has the objective of creating a railway network that connects Portugal, Spain and the rest of Europe. Major elements of the programme include the extension of France's high-speed railway network to better serve the whole Languedoc-Roussillon region, as well as a new Montpellier–Perpignan line, and providing a link between France and Spain. The journey from Montpellier to Paris is expected to take less than three hours on the new line.

Organisation and financing

In 2005, a déclaration d'utilité publique was passed; by May 2009, three bids had been received, out of which in January 2012, a joint venture led by Bouygues in cooperation with Setec, Systra and SGTE was selected to build the railway at a cost of €2.06 billion. Overall, the financing of the bypass programme is provided through a combination of public and private funding, the OC’VIA consortium contributed €1.5 billion ($1.87 billion) of privately raised funds themselves. The public funding is being provided by a combination of several bodies, including the French government, the Languedoc Roussillon Regional Council, multiple municipal authorities of Nîmes and Montpellier, the Gard General Council, the European Union, and SNCF Réseau.

In June 2012, SNCF Réseau entered a 25-year public-private partnership with OC’VIA for the financing, designing, building and maintaining of the line. Under the terms of this agreement, SNCF Réseau is responsible for the management of regulation, operational management of rail traffic and operation of the network and its technical installations. Meanwhile, Oc’Via established two subsidiaries, namely Oc’Via Construction, who performed the design and construction of the line, and Oc’Via Maintenance, which is responsible for the route's maintenance upon its commissioning. Under the terms of the agreement signed in June 2012, construction of the line was to start during late 2013 or early 2014 after 18 months of permitting and land acquisition. As scheduled, all work was to be completed by December 2017 while the opening to passenger services was not expected to occur before July 2018. The LGV Montpellier–Perpignan extension towards the LGV Perpignan–Figueres and the Spanish high speed network is unlikely to be started until well after 2020.

Various contractors have been involved with the Nîmes-Montpellier bypass. OC’VIA Construction awarded a contract to TERRASOL for conducting preliminary and detailed design studies for the project, this company had previously participated in the submission of the proposal for the HSL project. Later on, SYSTRA was awarded the design and construction contract and is in charge of the integrated project management, along with SETEC, while Egis-group is engaged to provide project management assistance services. Société Générale serves as the programme's financial advisor, as well as the mandated lead arranger, hedge provider and security agent for the OC’VIA consortium.