France: Each trainset must clock up 3,000 km in the course of operational trials that have been running since April.
The fleet of six four-car and seven six-car trains is expected to enter service in March 2027. The new rolling stock will link Charles de Gaulle airport with Paris Est station in the French capital. Top speed will be 150 km/h, with an average of 96 km/h and a journey time of 20 minutes.
The low-floor EMUs are based on the Coradia Polyvalent, a regional platform, and have been adapted to carry passengers to the airport. Ten luggage racks are spread evenly throughout the interior, and the doorways are fitted with retractable ramps that bridge the gap between train and platform. At one end of the train is an Express Lounge offering 12 seats in a 2+1 layout.
The CDG Express project is being delivered by French national operator SNCF, airport operator ADP and state investor CDC. Construction has been under way since 2019, and the line’s opening has now slipped by three years. The project budget has reached €2.6 bln.
The route will be run under concession by Hello Paris, a consortium of private operator Keolis and state-owned RATP Dev. In 2018 the company ordered 13 trainsets from Alstom; the contract was later transferred, along with the intellectual property rights to the platform and the plant at Reichshoffen in France, to Spain’s CAF.
