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(BUTTON) Search with google * Make a contribution * Subscribe * (BUTTON) International edition + switch to the UK edition + switch to the US edition + switch to the Australia edition * Search jobs * Dating * Holidays * Digital Archive * Discount Codes * The Guardian app * Video * Podcasts * Pictures * Newsletters * Today's paper * Inside the Guardian * The Observer * Guardian Weekly * Crosswords * Facebook * Twitter * Search jobs * Dating * Holidays * Digital Archive * Discount Codes * World * Europe * US * Americas * Asia * Australia * Middle East * Africa * Inequality * Cities * Global development (BUTTON) More The Observer Business HS2 boss needs French lessons to get his project moving The Sud Europe Atlantique high-speed railway line will be built in half the time – and for half the cost – of our HS2. Why? Gwyn Topham Gwyn Topham @GwynTopham Sun 9 Feb 2014 00.04 GMT First published on Sun 9 Feb 2014 00.04 GMT * Share on Facebook * Share on Twitter * Share via Email TGV HIGH-SPEED TRAIN FRANCE [ ] The TGV high-speed train has been a staple of French rail travel for 30 years. Photograph: Alamy While controversy rages over high-speed rail in Britain, the French are cracking on with three more lines. The biggest construction job right now is the Sud Europe Atlantique line, which will extend the route from Paris to Tours as far as Bordeaux in the south-west. The 302km stretch of track that will put Bordeaux just over two hours' journey time from the capital is half as long again as HS2's London-Birmingham route and – at first glance – is being built for around half the price and in half the time. It is due to start operations in 2017 at a cost of €7.8bn (£6.3bn), compared with HS2's £21.4bn and 2026 deadline for phase one. These bald figures might interest HS2's new chairman, Sir David Higgins, who has vowed to see if HS2 can be delivered more quickly and cheaply. So how is it done? 1 Make it pay to get cracking This is not all French hyperefficiency: the project is very different – mostly built on relatively flat, relatively unpopulated land alongside an existing motorway, with little tunnelling and no new stations. Yet Lisea, a subsidiary of engineering firm Vinci, which has been contracted to deliver the project, claims to be squeezing the timeframe, and has been given strong incentives to do so by the terms of the concession. The public-private finance deal, the first in the French railway system, gave Lisea the rights to the line for 50 years, starting the moment the tender was awarded in 2011. State, regional and European subsidies brought in £4bn, while Lisea's investment and borrowings will be recouped by charges paid by its customers (train operators rather than passengers) for access. It's a model more typical of the French motorway system: to maximise profits requires reaching a date for making money as early as possible. "A year off construction is worth any amount of preferential financing," says Laurent Cavrois, Lisea's president. That said, Lisea will be looking to refinance its £2bn loans immediately the line is constructed and risks diminish. 2 Don't wait for final plans With the seat-of-the-pants, 73-month ride for a July 2017 deadline, Vinci's construction subsidiary, Cosea, began work even while public consultations were going on. Offices in Poitiers, halfway along the line, were built before the deal was signed. Earthworks were started in late 2011, while the route was still being finessed, and continued despite the difficulties caused by torrential rain that has fallen in the region over the last year. Many of the 500 planned major engineering structures, including 24 viaducts, have already been built and installation of track is due to start later this year. All this while 4% of the land has yet to be acquired. The accelerated timetable is made possible, according to Xavier Neuschwander, president of Cosea, partly as a result of the step change in technology since the last lignes à grandes vitesses were built – essentially the flexibility to modify the scheme as needed by electronically sharing live updates of detailed maps and plans immediately with all the various authorities and engineering parties. And partly by a degree of public buy-in in France that Britain is far from achieving. 3 Get the public behind it While the costly development of new lines is controversial in recession-hit France – a planned line further south through the Basque country to Spain is regarded as politically unworkable, and protests continue over an extension from Bordeaux to Toulouse – Neuschwander claims the Tours-Bordeaux line has public approval for two reasons: "What had a tremendous impact were the environmental mitigation and the visibility of the employment." Cosea has, under increasingly stringent environmental directives, had to avoid or offset any impact on 223 protected animals, from mink to toads, building corridors along the route for streams and breeding sites. Around €700m of the budget has been contracted to local small businesses, with around 2,000 of the 8,500 construction staff hired locally. "Every local resident knows at least one person working on the project," Neuschwander says. 4 Keep clear of the trickiest bits While much of HS2's budget goes on the costs of coming into London and tunnelling through beauty spots and Tory marginals, the French route rejoins the existing line before it enters Bordeaux. There are still obstacles, and the open wounds of construction are visible. But even following the A10 autoroute's relatively motorway straight course between villages and towns means building dozens of new bridges and underpasses where the routes wind and overlap. Though the Touraine is a prosperous region, it's not the Chilterns: there will be no bored tunnelling, and only seven cut-and-cover tunnels. One hill we see excavated, with a few houses perched close to the chasm, will be restored to "respect the characteristics of the landscape". The sheer expanse of land that building the railway line requires is still striking. For miles, only the strip of land for the track is dug up, but in places the footprint is much wider: access routes for work vehicles; holding areas for excavated earth; new electricity substations; mounds of ballast prepared for the day when quarries cannot keep pace with the demands of the construction; extra lines for the trains that will lay the track. But at Tours there is a reminder that such scars fade: the railway is now a relatively discreet part of the landscape, the old line crossing the river on its rust-coloured viaduct, then partially masked by trees. 5 Start 30 years ago But this is France, where high speed rail been a staple of transport policy for more than 30 years, and generally have a measure of public backing Britain is far from achieving. At the far end, Bordeaux believes the line will be transformational. Its mayor, Alain Juppé, an ex-prime minister of France, says: "All major cities that are connected to the TGV have benefited – Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes. The economic impact is tremendous. A high-speed line can only help in attracting business and people." The railway industry argues that the TGV, as in Britain, is needed to provide capacity on the slower lines, not least for freight. And when the disruption of construction is over, a host of smaller towns down the route to Bordeaux will also be linked to the high-speed route via a series of raccordements, tracks allowing trains to divert into stations on the mainline railway. Cosea's Neuschwander warns that the effects of shaving 20 minutes off the journey to Birmingham should not be dismissed. "Twenty minutes is enormous. You can't imagine how much that will transform the geography." Tours was transformed, he says, when its high-speed service shrank the journey from Paris to just over an hour in 1989. There are more commuters but, also, business and industry have relocated to the city. "It changes everything if a place is an hour [from the capital]." 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(BUTTON) View more comments more on this story * HS2 may increase risk of homes being flooded, senior Conservatives fear Concerns voiced about high-speed train line that runs over flood plains and requires diversion of seven major rivers Published: 23 Feb 2014 HS2 may increase risk of homes being flooded, senior Conservatives fear * Euston redevelopment at heart of HS2 project, says George Osborne Plans for Euston could include a new shopping centre and offices as well as flats above the station Published: 21 Feb 2014 Euston redevelopment at heart of HS2 project, says George Osborne * How much is it costing to scare British taxpayers into paying for HS2? Simon Jenkins Simon Jenkins: In what amounts to an abuse of democracy, lobbyists are being used to put the case for an absurd project few really want Published: 21 Feb 2014 Published: 21 Feb 2014 How much is it costing to scare British taxpayers into paying for HS2? * HS2 billions should be diverted to rebuild south-west railways, say MPs Call to invest in transport infrastructure after sea wall collapse undermines Dawlish railway track Published: 15 Feb 2014 HS2 billions should be diverted to rebuild south-west railways, say MPs * + Rail travellers 'to face queues for trains without HS2' Published: 3 Feb 2014 Rail travellers 'to face queues for trains without HS2' + Transport secretary blocks HS2 report Published: 30 Jan 2014 Transport secretary blocks HS2 report + Diary: Could Peter Mandelson's Euston hovel explain his opposition to HS2? Esther Addley Published: 29 Jan 2014 Published: 29 Jan 2014 Diary: Could Peter Mandelson's Euston hovel explain his opposition to HS2? 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