ComfortDelGro unit wins six-year contract to operate rail services in Paris
Paige Lim
TRANSPORT operator ComfortDelGro on Tuesday (Jul 18) said its subsidiary ComfortDelGro Transit has bagged a six-year contract to operate rail services in Paris, France.
The contract was awarded to ORA, an international consortium comprising ComfortDelGro and two French companies: RATP Dev, a global operator of urban and inter-urban transport systems, and Alstom, which has pioneered sustainable and intelligent mobility solutions.
In a bourse filing on Tuesday, ComfortDelGro said this marks its first foray into France’s rail operations market, and is the first such move by a Singapore company.
ORA’s contract is for the South sector of Line 15, a new automated line under the 200 km Grand Paris Express (GPE) greenfield metro programme in the Greater Paris region of France.
The contract is for an initial term of six years, though there is opportunity for a further extension to nine years.
Under the contract, ORA will operate and maintain metro services across 16 stations, passing through 22 cities over 33 km. ComfortDelGro noted that this will be the first of the GPE projects to commence passenger service by the end of 2025. It added that there will be some 390,000 riders daily.
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ComfortDelGro managing director and group chief executive Cheng Siak Kian said the group, through its subsidiary SBS Transit, is also working with RATP Dev to submit a bid for the upcoming Jurong Region Line and the Cross Island Line in Singapore.
“Leveraging RATP Dev’s international expertise, we will, for instance, jointly create localised solutions where the transfer of technology and competencies will further strengthen our rail reliability and promote local rail engineering capabilities,” he said.
ORA’s contract is the second overseas rail-operations contract that ComfortDelGro has secured. In August 2021, it was awarded a contract to operate rail services in Auckland, New Zealand.
ComfortDelGro chairman Mark Greaves said that the group’s move into international rail operations is part of its “longer-term strategy to grow beyond (its) traditional core taxi and bus businesses”.
ComfortDelGro is focused on growing its rail business, which it sees as a “new significant contributor”, he said. He added that the group has brought in experts in rail tendering and operations under ComfortDelGro Transit. These include new heads of rail operations, maintenance and customer experience.
The latest award brings the international rail network operated by ComfortDelGro to 210 km, an increase of 16 per cent over its current 177 km in Singapore and Auckland, New Zealand. It said that it is also participating in a rail tender in Stockholm, Sweden, in partnership with public transport operator Go-Ahead Nordic.
Shares of ComfortDelGro closed at S$1.23, up S$0.01 or 0.8 per cent on Tuesday, before the announcement.
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