Connecting regions across France: Île-de-France
Find out how we support over 100,000 jobs in the region and work with all our stakeholders to make lives better.
We contribute to the region’s economic growth
69,176
SNCF Group employees in 2024
126,281
other local jobs supported
€6.2 billion
in purchases from local suppliers
Transilien—we’re hiring
Since 2022, hiring is a #1 priority for the SNCF Voyageurs’ Transilien team, serving commuters in Greater Paris. And in 2024, we exceeded our targets for the 2nd year running, thanks to the full-on dedication and commitment of all our people,. That included organizing over 60 job speed recruiting sessions with potential hires across the Paris region. These helped us recruit a total of 1,250 men and women, including:
- 530 RER regional rail, train and tram-train drivers
- 430 customer service agents for stations
- 170 maintenance technicians and train shunters for our maintenance centres
- 30 rail operations agents
- 90 supervisors and managers, engineers and IT systems specialists (project leads and developers), plus other support functions.
Promoting combined transport
Since 2022, our subsidiary GEODIS has offered rail-motorway freight services between France and Italy, with shipments originating or terminating in the Paris Region. We now run six return journeys a week between Noisy-le-Sec, north-east of Paris, and Novara, in Italy’s Piedmont area. Local rail freight has got a boost from this high efficiency option—a combined transport solution that lets shippers carry the equivalent of 240 containers a week while taking 12,000 truck journeys a year off the road.
Nous agissons pour le mieux vivre
Building the “best underground project in the world”
The first section of EOLE—the westward extension of Line E, an RER commuter link serving Paris—is now up and running, with three new stations served by an 8-km tunnel created 30 meters beneath the French capital. Trains operating at up to 120 km an hour whisk riders between Saint-Lazare and Nanterre stations. The extension has taken 8 years to date, with SNCF Réseau as project owner. In 2023, AITES, the International Tunnel and Underground Space Association, named it “the world’s best underground project”. Benefits for commuters include less crowded trains on lines A, B and D, a 12% reduction in passenger numbers at Saint-Lazare station, and easier transport overall, with RER Line E now the region’s most interconnected line.
Supporting more housing
With a backlog of 70,000 applicants, there’s no question that the Paris Region needs more housing. And as France’s second largest landowner, SNCF has stepped up to support new construction through our real-estate subsidiary SNCF Immobilier. To date some 6,600 housing units have been built on 536,000 sq m at 32 disused rail sites, of which 38% are social housing.
We’re also continuing to divest SNCF land in the ZAC des Groues development zone in Nanterre, northwest of Paris. On 12 December 2024, 4.5 hectares of land owned by SNCF Group entities (SNCF Réseau, Rail Logistics Europe and SNCF SA) were sold to Paris-La-Défense, the contracting authority heading up a sweeping urban renewal project on this 17.5-hectaire site. When completed, the new Les Groues district—featuring 4 hectares of green spaces and direct transport links to La Défense business district—will accommodate 10,500 residents and provide office space for 12,000 employees.
Stations house nurseries…
In 2022, a nursery was added to the rail station at Couilly Saint-Germain Quincy, east of Paris, allowing parents to drop infants off before catching a train to work. Designed to accommodate a dozen toddlers, the nursery is in the passenger building and grew out of a proposal by 2 trained childcare experts. The station is managed by SNCF Gares & Connexions, and the €860,000 project was fully funded by Île-de-France Mobilitiés as part of its Stations of Tomorrow programme.
… and local field-to-fork greengrocers
CoopVexin is a 100% volunteer-driven organization that encourages sustainable consumption through a shop set up in an unused space at Santeuil-le-Perchay station. The station itself is managed by SNCF Gares & Connexions and serves 31,561 passengers a year in Val d’Oise, north of Paris. At the coop, commuters and local residents can buy organic produce supplied by farmers in the department and in nearby Oise, including bread and beef from the Bergerie de Chaussy farm, and goat cheese from Le Bouc Vert dairy in nearby Butry-sur-Oise.
Trialling transport on demand in Pays de Meaux and Pays de l’Ourcq
JYVAIS is our eco-friendly alternative to private cars in the region’s sparsely populated areas—an inexpensive, efficient, on-demand car-sharing service with drivers. Coordinated by SNCF Tech4Mobility, the project was tested from May to October 2024 in 48 towns and villages, with the support of the Seine-et-Marne departmental council and Île-de-France Mobilités.
Residents used JYVAIS vehicles to get to public services, shops, leisure and cultural facilities on a daily basis. They also connected with SNCF Transilien Line P’s 5 local stations—Crouy-sur-Ourcq, Isles-les-Meldeuses, Lizy-sur-Ourcq, Meaux and Trilport. Included, too, was temporary transport service to pop-up events and activities. Users could book their journeys up to one month in advance, or as little as 30 minutes before leaving home, subject to availability. The service was accessible through a mobile app, the system’s customer service line, and the jyvais.sncf.fr website.
First 3rd-party bus operator in Paris inner suburbs
SNCF subsidiary Keolis operates public transport networks and is now the first third-party operator to manage bus lines—42 in all—connecting the inner suburbs of Paris. Routes serve communities north of Paris in the Val-de-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis and Seine-et-Marne departments, with a total 1,215 stops across 33 municipalities in an area with a population of 557,000. Keolis is committed to improving service quality and initiating the transition to electricity and natural gas (GNV) for the network’s 350 buses.
Operating metro lines, too
Keolis will also be operating some of the region’s key metro lines—the future Grand Paris Express system’s Lines 16, 17 and 18. Already a global leader in automated metros, Keolis was chosen by the region’s TOA Île-de-France Mobilités. Starting in 2026, Line 18 will connect business communities in Orly, Antony, Massy, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and Versailles, along with Paris-Saclay, a world-class science and research hub. Keolis was also chosen to operate the Grand Paris Express rail station at Saint-Denis Pleyel, a hub now served by Line 14 that will be joined by Lines 15, 16 and 17.
Teaching the next generation about rail safety
During the 2023/2024 school year, SNCF employees in our IMS outreach programmes taught rail safety to 29,782 school children between the ages of 9 and 18 in the Paris Region—9% more than the year before.
Doing even more for the people in the Paris region
In Île-de-France, SNCF Foundation works closely with 20 associations. Our partners help young people find jobs by offering them guidance and tutoring, by organizing competitions and social and environmental missions and by giving them study grants, etc. They also promote projects raising awareness about ecological issues, whether through educational programs, agricultural activities or events focused on biodiversity and sustainable development.
Watch our video to learn how we partner with E2C in order to help young people in the Paris region.
Fondation SNCF - Our partner E2C explains how we support them
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