A new intermodal bypass railway is to be constructed in the French city of Laval, close to Britanny. The bypass will dive under the the regional road 900, while it also functions as a junction between road and rail. Containers can be loaded on trains headed for Paris. The bypass will be operational in 2021.

The junction will be situated in an industrial area shared with the company Eiffage, which supervises the high-speed railway track in this area. The bypass will be managed by the transport operator T3M, which will work with the national railway company SNCF to manage the timetable and capacity distribution. It is constructed at a budget of 8 million Euros.

750-metre lenghth trains

It is expected that the new infrastructure can handle 40 containers per day to be transferred to a 750-metre length train. The town hall of Laval reported that several transport companies are interested in the new service, forecasting some manufacturers as Lactalis to jump onboard.

The bypass will be complementary to the logistics terminal of Argentre, 15 minutes further. Both facilities have the main objective of reducing traffic congestion between western France and Paris. Laval and Argentre are located in the department of Mayenne, 280 kilometres far from Paris. As such, the cities have a strategic position to connect the western French provinces with L’Île-de-France, the main economic region of the country.