Our objectives

L’ingénierie est un acteur central. Au service de ses clients pour répondre ou anticiper leurs besoins, elle met plus largement en œuvre des solutions, des innovations et des adaptations pour les trains d’aujourd’hui et de demain, comme le TGV M, le RER NG, les nouveaux trains INTERCITÉS, etc.

Engineering is a key player. Serving customers to meet or anticipate their needs, it also implements solutions, innovations and adaptations for today's and tomorrow's trains, such as the TGV M, the RER NG, the new Intercités trains and more. 

Competent in all the functions of railway rolling stock and its interfaces, the rolling stock engineering department has recognized experience in all phases of the lifecycle. It specifies in technical terms the needs of operators for their trains to be commissioned or renovated. The engineering department is also heavily involved in maintenance engineering, providing all the know-how required, including the definition of maintenance rules. It analyzes performance and carries out tests of all kinds, providing decisive expertise in safety, reliability, maintenance, interoperability and customer comfort.

Equipment engineering means: 

• 1^er European safety equipment testing laboratory. 
• Over 400 transformation & renovation projects, acquisitions and safety equipment.

Its teams are divided between the headquarters of the Materials Division, the 5 engineering clusters located throughout France, the Materials Engineering Center (CIM) and the Rail Testing Agency (AEF).

Engineering for rolling stock maintenance, renovation and conversion

5 Clusters

• Meeting operators' expectations. 
• Enhance maintenance know-how. 
• Strengthen local roots and synergies between engineering teams. 
• Maintain close links with our technical centers. 
• Improving quality and performance in the service of our customers.

Rail testing agency

• Laboratory activities and on-line tests on new or converted equipment. 
• 200 technicians and engineers improve functionality and comfort on all types of equipment. 
• Essential contribution to rolling stock safety, reliability and maintenance. 
• 15,000 measuring devices. 
• 10,000 services/year. 
• 1 ultra-modern 3,000 m laboratory² housing physico-chemical and metallurgical activities. 
• 262,000 km covered by test trains on average per year. 
• 1,100 test or expert reports produced per year.

Equipment engineering center 

350 technicians and engineers work in collaboration with the technical centers. 

Definition of technical specifications for new equipment. 

Its various departments, specializing in design, paintwork and brakes, determine the transformations to be carried out. 

Major expertise in rail interoperability, accessibility for people with reduced mobility, passenger comfort and ecomobility.

Industrial maintenance (or heavy maintenance) is carried out after 15 to 20 years in service. These large-scale operations are carried out in 10 industrial technical centers, with a workforce of nearly 6,000. They are specialized by part family, requiring unique know-how.

Technicentres also overhaul and repair parts such as axles, couplings, electric motors and air-conditioning units. This guarantees the durability of every part of the trainset.

An industrial profession

Renovation and modernization of rolling stock: integrating technological advances and innovative solutions for ever greater safety, performance and comfort. 

10 industrial technicenters, veritable 4.0 factories with technical expertise and powerful industrial resources.

Heavy maintenance, renovation and modernization

Giving materials a new lease of life. 

In-depth overhaul and renovation: all parts are dismantled, checked, renovated or replaced. 

Modernization, transformation: new technological, IT or design functionalities developed by engineering: PRM equipment (repairable parts), on-board WiFi, passenger information systems, interior fittings.

Parts repair

Guaranteeing the durability of every part of the trainset. 

Repairable parts (axles - bogies - engines - air-conditioning units - pantographs - electronic components) are refurbished where technically possible and economically viable. 

450,000 parts repaired/year. 

22,000 repairable parts listed.

10 plants 4.0 by 2025

Restructured, versatile, high-performance production facilities.  

4.0 technologies and new tooling.

Optimized processes

Since 2015, the equipment department has been committed to transforming its industrial tool, in order to propel the 10 industrial technicenters to the highest level of Industry 4.0 standards.

Objectives: 

Enhance their industrial performance (cost, quality, lead time) to improve efficiency and competitiveness. 

Accelerate their digital transformation. 

Maintaining excellence in know-how. 

In-depth transformation of buildings and working methods to optimize processes (physical + digital), via a structuring master plan.

In concrete terms, this means: 

• technical and technological changes involving:
  • hard (redesign of workshops and their facilities)
  • soft (optimization of processes, flows, inventories, facilitated by 4.0 technologies)
• the managerial and organizational transformations that accompany them: while the nature of agents' core business remains unchanged, digital tools enable them to perform their jobs differently, with greater emphasis on collaboration, autonomy and responsiveness.

More than 500 million euros are being invested so that SNCF Voyageurs can equip itself with a restructured, versatile, flexible, responsive and competitive industrial tool to meet the expectations of internal customers, as well as those of organizing authorities and external customers. 

By 2025, technologies (additive manufacturing, big data, artificial intelligence, exoskeletons, cobots (collaborative robots), autonomous robots, fablabs, etc.) will be deployed in the 10 new-generation industrial technicenters.