ComfortDelGro enters French rail operations market with new contract

ComfortDelGro, through its subsidiary ComfortDelGro Transit (CDGT), has been signed to operate rail services in Paris, marking the Group’s first foray into France’s rail operations market.

The contract, which is for an initial term of six years with the opportunity for further extension to nine years, is for the South sector of Line 15 – a new automated line under the ambitious 200-km Grand Paris Express (GPE) greenfield metro programme in the Greater Paris region, France. ORA will operate and maintain metro services across 16 stations, passing through 22 cities, over 33 kilometres.

With an expected daily ridership of 390,000, it will be the first of the Grand Paris Express (GPE) projects to commence passenger service by the end of 2025, a release to the press stated. ComfortDelGro has not revealed the cost of the contract.

The contract comes less than two years after the transport company won the contract to operate rail services in Auckland and New Zealand, representing its first overseas rail operations. ComfortDelGro landed the deal following an international consortium called ORA which comprises ComfortDelGro and two French companies, RATP Dev and Alstom.

“We, through our subsidiary, SBS Transit, are also collaborating with RATP Dev to bid for the upcoming Jurong Region Line and the Cross Island Line in Singapore,” said the ComfortDelGro’s managing director and group CEO, Cheng Siak Kian.

He added that leveraging RATP Dev’s international expertise, ComfortDelGro will jointly create localised solutions where the transfer of technology and competencies will further strengthen its rail reliability and promote local rail engineering capabilities.

Hiba Farès, CEO of RATP Dev, said, "This extension of a historic public transit network will contribute to the efficient interconnection of several districts in the region.”

This latest deal will bring the international rail network operated by ComfortDelGro to 210km, an increase of 16% over its current 177km in Singapore and Auckland. It is also participating in a rail tender in Stockholm, Sweden, in partnership with Go-Ahead Nordic. Comfort DelGro will be going head-to-head with SMRT Corporation which is also vying to operate four metro lines in Stockholm, according to Seah Moon Ming, the chairman of SMRT.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to ComfortDelGro for more information.

With this deal, ComfortDelGro will be joining SMRT Corporation which had also been signed by the Paris metro. SMRT obtained a contract in 2021 to be a ‘shadow operator’ to launch five metro lines.

The news comes amidst the rise in ride-hailing companies in Singapore, all vying for a similar consumer pool. Just last year, ComfortDelGro and Gojek tied up to jointly explore ways to address key issues affecting the point-to-point transport industry, including driver shortage. The two companies agreed to look at providing Gojek users with access to ComfortDelGro taxis via the Gojek app to help address the driver shortage issue that is currently facing the industry.

During the two-year partnership, both parties will also explore other areas of collaboration including the sharing of resources which will benefit drivers and passengers.

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