Arcadis is participating in the progress of the CDG Express

Arcadis, an international engineering and consulting firm, is pleased to announce the technical commissioning of the CDG Express in the first half of 2026, the new direct rail link between the Gare de l'Est in Paris and Terminal 2 of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). Stretching 32 km, including 7 km of new track, it aims to bring the airport closer to the city by offering travelers a fast and comfortable alternative. It will connect the center of Paris to Europe's second-largest airport in just 20 minutes, non-stop and with modern facilities.

To successfully complete this large-scale project, from 2018 until the end of August 2025, Arcadis worked closely with SNCF Réseau, the project owner of the rail infrastructure, and Aéroports de Paris (ADP), responsible for the infrastructure within the Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport area, providing its technical and project management expertise. As Technical Project Management Assistant (AMOT), the international engineering and consulting firm's role was to ensure the technical compliance of all the line's structures and to support the project owners on certain topics, such as minimum operating conditions in the event of equipment failures affecting train safety in tunnel sections and train speeds on the various sections of the line. Arcadis also assisted SNCF Réseau in the preparation of the design-build contract, the selection of the consortium awarded this contract and the management of operations for the new section of the line which extends from Mitry-Mory to Terminal 2 of the CDG airport at the RER B station.

According to Franck Chanal, Project Director at Arcadis: “During our six-year external oversight mission, our main challenge was to ensure the overall coherence of the project, given the multiple project owners and project managers, and the scheduling constraints. More specifically, our role was to structure the project and find technical solutions that met the expectations of all stakeholders.”

The 25 km of existing infrastructure used by the CDG Express underwent partial upgrades: track renewal, adaptation of signaling and overhead lines, and compliance of drainage systems. In terms of planning, the main challenges of the project involved creating the 7 km of new track, including the construction of the last kilometer of the tunnel under some of the runways at CDG Airport, which necessitated their temporary closure. The other major challenge concerned integrating the new line's operating system into dense rail hubs such as La Plaine-Stade de France in Saint-Denis, while ensuring minimal disruption to RER users.

Hello Paris, the joint venture between Keolis (SNCF Group) and RATP Dev, responsible for operating the service and maintaining the rolling stock, will provide passengers on the new high-speed train with modern equipment: seats designed for air travelers, dedicated luggage spaces, Wi-Fi connections and real-time flight information.

According to Hervé Brémand, Head of the Operational Management Unit within the General Directorate for Major Projects at SNCF Réseau – CDG Express Agency: “We are getting closer every day to the realization of the CDG Express and thank the Arcadis teams for their significant contribution to the project's progress. Beyond reducing travel times to Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport, the CDG Express will alleviate congestion on the RER B and improve comfort for passengers with luggage, while also contributing to the modernization of the existing network. It also represents a significant step towards the ecological transition of transportation, with a modal shift of 15% from car traffic, resulting in estimated savings of 330,000 tons of CO2 over 50 years.”