Our impact
Nîmes-Montpellier Railway Bypass (CNM), France
A 80km high speed railway for freight and passengers which forms part of the Mediterranean High Speed Link. In operation since 2017
Background
The Nîmes-Montpellier Bypass (CNM) Project is a 25-year contract for a new 80-kilometre section of railway for both freight and passenger traffic between Nîmes and Montpellier. It is an extension of the Mediterranean High-Speed Link which was commissioned in 2001.
The line has been developed for several reasons:
- serving both passenger and freight rail services,
- adding substantial capacity to the existing east-west transport corridor,
- bypassing the cities of Nîmes and Montpellier, and
- serving as an extension to a strategic rail route from Barcelona to Avignon and beyond.
OC’Via, the Project Company, signed the 25-year PPP contract with SNCF Réseau, a government entity which owns the national French railway network.
The infrastructure was commissioned in 2017, on schedule. In 2019, Meridiam increased its ownership from 53% to 73% by acquiring the shares of the industrial partners.
Stage:
In Operation
ESG/SDG Key Facts
A five-year partnership with France Active and Airdie was launched in 2017 to develop a programme of micro credit (“Cap’Jeune”) to foster job creation in neighbouring regions for young entrepreneurs. 80 entrepreneurs have benefited from this programme.
This first partnership was replaced in December 2020 by a more ambitious one with France Active-Airdie and the Conservatoire d’Espaces Naturels (CEN) to promote local organic farming. This initiative named TerrAES provides technical and methodological support to the partner municipalities on various critical tasks: biodiversity diagnosis, project definition, calls for applications.
Since 2022, TerrAES has supported a goat farm (rearing and cheese production) in Trèves (Gard), a sheep farm in Mas-de-Londres (Hérault) and two small local organic farms in Gigean (Hérault). Other territories are being studied for the development of agriculture and breeding. OC’Via has extended the partnership till 2025.
In June 2021, the Maintainer achieved a triple ISO certification: 9001 (Quality), 14001 (Environment Management System) and 45001 (Security and Health).
SDG Achievements and Roadmap
SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy)
100% of the tracks are electrified. The Project improved the collection of data relating to energy consumption, enabling the Operator to better target energy efficiency actions.
SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production)
Waste improvement has been targeted in neighbouring communities through the launch of an app and a partnership started in 2021 with Indigo City (the Company behind the app called INDIGO), facilitating free donations, barter, and other
innovative initiatives to reduce waste.
SDG 13 (Climate Action)
Partnership with AXA Climate to use the CNM infrastructure as a pilot Project to analyse the resilience of rail infrastructure to climate change, with a case study finalised in June 2022.
SDG 15 (Life on Land)
Almost 2,000 ha of habitat for the protected species impacted by the Project have been restored.
> Learn more about the project:
Launch of the First commercial freight train on the CNM (Nîmes-Montpellier Bypass)
