2023-09-22 14:02:00
Botox is the name of this operation that the SNCF has just presented. As botulinum toxin erases – for a time – facial wrinkles, the 104 selected trains will undergo, at the Hellemmes industrial Technicentre, near Lille, a rejuvenation treatment which can last up to three months. Objective, depending on the case, to carry out a mid-life or end-of-life renovation to extend their circulation life from 2 to 10 years. “It’s unplanned obsolescence,” comments Alain Krakovitch, director of TGV-Intercités, one of the architects of the Botox project.
There is indeed an urgent need to increase the capacity of the TGV fleet which has decreased, from 410 trains in 2018 to 363 today. And train occupancy is significant at 82% this summer, with 40% of trains full. Prices with the pressure of demand on supply are consistent. A Laval-Lyon ticket, for example, generally 100 euros, jumps to 400 euros if there is a change of date. To the point that Greenpeace deplores that train fares in Europe are more than twice those of plane fares.
Thus, in 2025, the TGV M will enter service on the Paris-Lyon-Marseille route, with one train delivered per month. In 2026, and for ten years, the 104 trainsets renovated to “Oceane Like” comfort standards, the standard of the latest Duplex generation, will gradually arrive at Paris-Bordeaux. Before working on the comfort elements, the thousand employees from 20 trades in Hellemmes will dissect the trains, looking for signs of corrosion and cracks, two old-age diseases of trains (like planes).
The bogies are dismantled, the brakes and the engines overhauled. Particular attention is paid to electrical circuits which have up to 200 km of cables. An update is carried out in cars with individual power sockets, USB sockets, LED lighting, etc. Out of 104 trains, three quarters are at one level. The remaining quarter – Duplexes – will benefit from the ten-year extension.
Cost between 500 million and one billion euros
Until the 104 reams have been appraised, it is difficult to quantify the cost of Botox, estimated between 500 million and one billion euros. Compare it to the cost of a new TGV train, close to 30 million euros. Two million hours of work in the Technicentre will be necessary to carry out this program.
Of the ten SNCF Voyageurs industrial technician centers, five provide repair of spare parts. 500,000 TGV parts are repaired every year rather than buying new ones. This represents a saving of half a billion euros per year. In this context, 19 trains (excluding Botox) will be parked as a “store” by 2025-2026: parts will be recovered and used there from 2025 and until 2042 in this “cannibalization”. More than 3,000 parts can be recovered per train: armrests, seats, electronic parts and cards, mechanical parts such as bogies, motors, etc.). From the small room to the large room, nothing is left out. As in the pig, everything…
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