The start-up of the Regional Express Train (TER) project connecting the capital of Senegal to its new international airport was made official on December 14 2016 in Dakar.

The ceremony was attended by Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal, Yann Rolland, President and CEO of ENGIE Ineo, Philippe Miquel, Chief Executive Officer of ENGIE Central and West Africa and Christian Guay, Director of the TER Dakar project at Thales.

In partnership with Thales, we are going to manage this project for the design and construction of the TER infrastructures and systems. With this project, we are offering tailored solutions for consumers while redesigning our activity portfolio, contributing to the implementation of our transformation plan.

The TER will connect Dakar to the new international airport of Blaise Diagne in less than 50 minutes. The work is estimated to last 26 months for the first section linking Dakar to Diamniadio (36 km). The second section connecting Diamniadio to the international airport, 19 km long, will take 15 months to build. The design studies and construction work have just started and the commissioning of the first section of the route is scheduled for end 2018.

This project is part of the «Emerging Senegal Plan» launched by the President of the Republic and the Senegal government in 2014 for the economic and social development of the country.

Smart systems at the forefront of innovation

The ENGIE Ineo and Thales teams will jointly provide the design and construction of the project technical systems. Design includes all studies and project management, together with the control of the integration tests. The construction of the technical systems includes the railway signalling systems for regulating the trains and  the safety management of the switching system, the train and power rail power supply stations, the on-line telecommunication systems in the 14 railway stations and in the maintenance centres: passenger safety with video monitoring, passenger Wifi connections on board the train and in the stations, the GSMR system (rail-specific telecommunication network), fire detection, real-time passenger information on the platforms and on board the trains and a comprehensive ticketing system.

This contract showcases the expertise of the two groups, which are creating and developing effective and innovative solutions for the connected cities and regions.

It highlights our intention to develop our activities on African territory and in Senegal. In particular, we are present in this country with the Solairedirect Senergy project: a 30 MW photovoltaic power plant sited in the town of Santiou Mekhé and scheduled for commissioning in March 2017.

A strong presence in Africa

We are deploying several types of activity in the African continent: the development of power generation with a portfolio of about 3000 MW capacity in service or under construction. We are also offering decentralised power generation for isolated businesses and rural villages. Another activity is the guidance of our customers for their service supply and energy efficiency needs. These activities are combined with the exploration-production of gas fields in Algeria and advanced prospects in Egypt.

We are also present via our solidarity investment fund, ENGIE Rassembleurs d’Énergies, which is investing in projects providing access to sustainable energy for vulnerable populations. Our ambition is to be one of the main energy leaders in Africa by 2025 with the development of major projects on the continent.

As for Thalès, it has been present for more than 30 years on the African continent and is a recognised ground transportation actor, with the deployment of railway signalling, ticketing and telecommunication solutions particularly in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa.

Inauguration du TER of Dakar with Macky Sall, President of the Republic of Senegal and Yann Rolland, President and CEO of ENGIE Ineo