SYSTRA

SYSTRA is a multinational engineering and consulting group in the mobility sector, whose fields of activity include rail and public transport. SYSTRA employs about 10,300 people worldwide, and is a limited company which shareholders include French national railway company SNCF, RATP, and various banks.
The history of SYSTRA begins in 1957, when the SNCF created SOFRERAIL (French Company for Railway Design and Construction). Four years later, the RATP also creates its own engineering branch : SOFRETU (French Company for Public Transport Design and Construction). SOFRERAIL and SOFRETU merge in 1995, originally under the name SYSTRA-Sofretu-Sofrerail, later shortened to SYSTRA in 1997.
In June 2011, INEXIA (engineering branch of the SNCF) and XELIS (the 2006 launched engineering branch of the RATP) both join SYSTRA. The merger is finally ratified on 1 July 2012.
Created as an international company, SYSTRA quickly developed a network of branches and subsidiaries in more than 50 countries.
In 1995, the acquisition of the MVA group gives SYSTRA a consulting base in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and the Middle East.
During 1990, the CANARAIL subsidiary was created in Montreal (now known as SYSTRA Canada). In 1994, the company's US branch opens in New York City under the name of SYSTRA Consulting.
In 2000, the Italian railway and urban transport engineering services company SOTECNI joined SYSTRA, being rebranded as SYSTRA SOTECNI.
During 2006, after 50 years of presence in India, SYSTRA India is created in Delhi; it was further developed with the acquisition of the Indian engineering office SAI in 2014.
In 2015, SYSTRA purchased JMP Consultants Ltd, a British company that specializes in engineering and transport planning consulting. Later that same year, SYSTRA bought Tectran, strengthening its presence in the Brazilian market. During 2016, SYSTRA acquires four new subsidiaries: Dalco Elteknik AB (a Swedish rail engineering company), Scott Lister (an Australian company specialized in system engineering and risk management), SIAS Transport Planners (A British company specialized in transport planning consulting) and VETEC (a Brazilian road and rail transport engineering and consulting company).
In September 2017, the group strengthens its "bridges and civil engineering structures" department by acquiring the California-based company International Bridge Technologies. Its Brazilian subsidiaries Tectran and VETEC merged at the end of that same year.
In 2019, SYSTRA acquired TSP Projects in the UK and C&S Conseils in France.
During 2021, SYSTRA acquired the Italian-based SWS Engineering.
In 2023, SYSTRA acquired the Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian entities of Atkins, Rail Systems Australia (a rail signalling firm), Bamser (an Australian tunnel engineering firm), and Subterra (a tunnel engineering firm based in Spain and Latin America).
During 2024, SYSTRA dismissed an employee for raising safety concerns in response to pressure by Peter Hendy, chairman of Network Rail.
In October 2024, Latour Capital and FIMALAC acquired a combined 58% shareholding. RATP and SNCF each retained 20% with the remaining 2% held by Systra employees.
The company works together with industrial groups or equipment companies. It acts as a consultant in the public transportation sector, or as a provider of operation services for managing companies. As such, SYSTRA works equally as a subcontractor for private clients and public clients.
SYSTRA segments its activity by expertise but also by sector.
Markets:
Services:
SYSTRA was involved in the design of over 60% of working tram lines in France. In 1997, SYSTRA partnered with the engineering group TYSIA to design Bordeaux's tram, which was the first tramway to dispense with overhead lines. Brest's and Casablanca's tram lines, which SYSTRA designed were named second best in the world by the British Light Rail Transit Association in 2012. SYSTRA is also responsible for the project management of the Dubai tram, opened in 2014. The group had been active in the capital since 2003 when it was charged with conducting preliminary studies for the underground. In 2018, SYSTRA Canada was asked to engineer Quebec city's tram.
SYSTRA was involved in one in two underground projects across the world, whether as a designer or an engineer, to conduct studies or to assist the project management. The company has contributed to the following notable projects :
SYSTRA is involved in defining, designing and integrating cable transport projects in urban settings. The company has for instance been chosen to design, implement and maintain the Orleans cable car, and in 2018 won the contract for Marseille's cable car project. SYSTRA is also designed Toulouse.'s cable car, the second urban cable car project in France after that of Brest (opened in 2016), and the second longest.
In 2014, SYSTRA was requested to conduct studies for the Chacao bridge, meant to link the Chilean island of Chiloe to the continent. It is the biggest suspension bridge project in South America. Located near a seismic fault, the project is a technological challenge. The construction was approved in February 2019.
On 1 May 2019, SYSTRA inaugurated the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Saba bridge in Kuwait.
During 2017, SYSTRA acquired International Bridge Technologies, a prominent bridge engineering company. On that occasion, the group announced that it was launching a worldwide expert network on the subject.
In 2018, SYSTRA was selected by the city of Kingston, Canada to design and build a 1.2 km bridge over the Cataraqui river. Construction is meant to start in 2019.
SYSTRA is in charge of a section of the Lyon-Turin Euralpin Tunnel (TELT), one of the biggest railway projects in Europe.
On 5 October 2021, SYSTRA acquired SWS, a leading Italian engineering company recognised worldwide for its expertise in the field of tunnels and underground structures, making it SYSTRA SWS. The acquisition enabled SYSTRA to strengthen its expertise in this field, increase its presence in Italy and access new markets in the design and construction of tunnels, particularly in Europe.
SYSTRA has been a partner of the French national research program Ville10D since 2012. The program consistently promotes the exploitation of urban underground spaces via the design of sustainable metropolises. With about 30 partners (engineers, project managers, research labs, companies and NGOs), the program hopes to improve knowledge of underground resources and to show there is a realistic alternative to laying out the surface only. This initiative of the French Association for Tunnels and Underground Space (AFTES) is supported by the French Minister for Ecological Transition.
SYSTRA's teams also work towards developing autonomous trains together with the SNCF. The aim is to create a system that perceives its surroundings in a way that imitates the observation powers of train drivers. Since 2015, the group has worked with several partners on European wide research and innovation projects, including IN2RAIL, SHIFT2RAIL and CAPACITY4RAIL. These projects intend to optimize the conception of key elements in the infrastructure (tracks, tracks appliances), to develop predictive maintenance and to envisage future rail management systems.
Since 2016, the firm has been part of the consultative technological committee of Virgin Hyperloop One, a company developing the high speed transportation technology "Hyperloop". In January 2017, the Californian company asked SYSTRA to assess the safety of the Hyperloop infrastructures in order to obtain the legal validation of the project. The first two tests are successfully conducted that very same year. The group is awarded the BIM prize for "Build Earth Live Hyperloop", in Dubai during the "Hyperloop Station Design Competition", for its Möbius project. The 2-day challenge consisted in using a collaborative BIM platform to conceive a prototype that would bring the 2h30 train ride between Dubai and the Fujairah Emirate to about 10 minutes.
In Singapore, SYSTRA supported the ASV project (Automated Driving Simulation and Validation) in partnership with the Institute of Technological Research SystemX, the NTU (Nanyang Technological University), Renault, SNCF, and AV Simulation (an OKTAL subsidiary). The project was one of the strategic lines of the CETRAN (Center of Excellence for Testing and Research of Autonomous Vehicles), centered on the development of a digital simulation platform to test out and certify the safety of autonomous vehicles in urban and suburban environments. For 48 months, autonomous vehicles had been tried and tested on a 2ha trial ground that resembled Singapore's main roads.
In 2012, SYSTRA creates the workshop " La Fabrique " that uses a "makerstorming" fast-track method of innovation invented by the Nod-A agency. The workshop brings together employees and outside speakers in a cross-disciplinary approach in order to reflect upon practical problems and come up with answers. In 2016, " La Fabrique " was awarded the Label 2017 of the L'Observeur du Design.
In the Engineering News-Record (ENR) 2023 Rankings (based on 2022 turnover), SYSTRA was ranked 3rd in "Mass Transit and Rail", 4th in "Bridges", and 8th in "Transportation". ENR also ranked SYSTRA 24th among the top 225 international design firms and 45th among the top 150 global design firms.
The group relies on the historical expertise of the SNCF and RATP.
SYSTRA is present on every continent, in 80 countries in total. The company divides its activity between seven regions, relying on its local subsidiaries. In 2017, SYSTRA was involved in 60% of the world's automated metro line projects. International revenue grew throughout the 2010s, from 55% in 2015 to two-thirds in 2018.
SYSTRA employs about 10,000 employees worldwide.