Grand Paris Express selects Eurogroup Consulting, EY and McKinsey

Grand Paris Express, one of Europe’s largest currently running transport projects, has appointed three consultancies to its management consulting framework. 

The trio of Eurogroup Consulting, one of France’s larger home-grown management consultancies, Big Four firm EY and strategy giant McKinsey & Company have been selected following a competitive bidding process, which saw a total of eight leading consulting firms pitch for the prestigious project.

The Grand Paris Express is part of the Grand Paris strategy announced in 2007 under Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency, to develop Greater Paris into a sustainable metropolitan area. One of the key goals is to provide a better connection between central Paris and the suburbs, and between the suburbs, in the city’s quest to give Paris multiple centres, just like modern London.

A total of 68 new metro stations, mainly in suburbs, are planned to be built, and over 200 kilometres of additional metro tracks. Four additional rapid transit lines will be introduced (15, a ring route around Paris; and neighbourhood lines 16, 17 and 18), with the connection estimated to ultimately serve 2 million daily commuters.According to the programme statement of Grand Paris Express, the mega project will “mark a break with the way the Paris transport network operates, creating new patterns of mobility by facilitating travel between the suburbs. In enabling regional areas to engage in dialogue both with each other and with Paris, Grand Paris Express will provide businesses with a wealth of opportunities fostering economic development.” 

As one example, travelling from the Charles-de-Gaulle airport to the business district La Défense will be cut from the current 53 minutes to 34 minutes, while traveling by metro from Orly Airport to the Paris Saclay University Campus will following go-live take only 15 minutes, instead of the current 66 minutes. 

A €22 billion mega project

Construction of the new lines, overseen by project owner and contracting authority Société du Grand Paris (SGP), began in June 2015 and is being carried out in phases up to 2030, with some new tracks to open before the Paris Olympics of 2024 (although the coronavirus has delayed a number of delivery milestones). The estimated budget for the entire project is €22.6 billion. 

A range of external professional services firms are supporting the project, on areas such as engineering, technical design, construction, programme- and project management, financial control, governance and risk management. 

Seeking advice and support on management and organisational matters, Grand Paris Express sent out a tender earlier this year for a €7.5 million framework agreement. Eight non-disclosed bids were received, and Eurogroup Consulting (a member of Nextcontinent), EY and McKinsey & Company came out on top selected for their leading track record in public transport. 

Notably, Eurogroup Consulting, which has a 400-strong team in France, last year released a study on the quality of metro systems worldwide, finding that Paris already ranks as one of the world’s top tram systems. However, outranked on some facets by Lyon and London for instance, improvement potential was also identified, and Eurogroup Consulting will now be part of the team working on further advancing Europe’s second busiest metro system behind just Russia’s Moscow.