Technical visits

The technical visits will be:

•  the control centers of "Lille Flandres" station and of "Paris-Nord/Calais" High Speed Line in Lille center.
  

Copyright LVDR / photo C.RECOURA

The visit is split in two parts.

The first part of the visit will be at the train-regulating signal box center (“Poste d'Aiguillage et de Régulation” - PAR) of Lille. It is one of the four PAR centers of the French railway network that control the train traffic on the high-speed lines. The main functions carried out are: signal box, traffic control and energy management. The PAR of Lille opened in 1993 with the Northern high-speed line that connects Paris to the Belgian border and the Channel Tunnel via Lille.

The second part of the visit will be at the traffic control center of the Lille Flandres station. It manages the routes in the station through a computer-controlled all-relay interlocking for both high speed and regional trains.

• the High Speed train maintenance center in Hellemmes (near Lille).
  

The Hellemmes maintenance center is the reference site for maintenance and renewal of TGV (trains grande vitesse - high speed trains). Complete disassembly and retrofitting trains, verification of safety sub-systems are performed here.

 In addition to visiting the maintenance center, we will have the possibility of observing equipments as traction transformers, wheelset axels, TGV engines and electronic cards. Finally, we will discuss the last technical challenges which SNCF has to face and of several tasks carried out at the center.