It’s a month full of work ahead for the SNCF. Like last year, more than 1,000 construction sites are planned in the four corners of Île-de-France during the month of May, for an amount of 2.2 billion euros. These works, which will mobilize up to 7,000 people, will take advantage of the many public holidays and bridges, as passenger traffic is much lower at these times than in normal times. Change of signaling, power supply cables, laying of new rails, accessibility of stations for people with reduced mobility… Companies in charge of infrastructure renovation must make as much progress as possible on construction sites before the truce imposed on the he summer of 2024, the date of the start of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The SNCF lines will all be affected by closures, partial or total, from April 29. Substitution buses will be put in place but it is recommended to avoid traveling on these days on the SNCF network. Among the big projects expected, the one at Gare de l’Est on May 13 and 14, where the avant-garde will be cut for 52 hours. The TGVs will be diverted from Gare du Nord and the TERs from Gare d’Austerlitz. Traffic will also be interrupted as far as Chelles (Seine-et-Marne) for RER B and E (from Haussmann-Saint-Lazare). This involves connecting the extension to the west of the RER E – the famous EOLE project – to the single traffic command center in Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis), ensuring that the 700 traffic lights and 640 turnouts respond well to commands.
Extensions of journeys
SNCF will also renew eight switches and 7,000 meters of high-speed line on the Atlantic axis during the weekends of May 18 and 27. During these works, the TGVs to the Center and New Aquitaine regions will leave and arrive at Austerlitz station, not Montparnasse. This will lengthen the journey by 30 minutes. TGVs from and to Brittany and Pays de la Loire will arrive at Montparnasse station, with an extension of 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes.
Another spectacular construction site will finally affect traffic on the weekend of May 28, that of Pentecost. SNCF Réseau will indeed begin work to replace “Pont 1” in front of the Gare du Nord, a metal structure dating from the end of the 19th century. Below pass the RER B and D; above the line K and the TER. To this will be added the Charles-de-Gaulle Express link to the airport, which requires the commissioning of a new bridge in the summer of 2025. With, by then, probably a few more disrupted weekends.