 | |
| Predecessor | Seco Rail AMEC-Spie |
|---|---|
| Founded | September 2007 |
Area served | United Kingdom |
| Services | Freight operating company Rail infrastructure renewal |
| Parent | Bouygues |
| Website | www.colasrail.com |
Colas Rail is a railway infrastructure and rail freight company primarily active in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of Bouygues.
Colas Rail was founded as Seco Rail by SECO (Société d'Études et de Construction d'Outillage). In the twentieth century, its main activities were railway construction and maintenance. Seco Rail was involved in various major projects, such as in the construction of phase one of High Speed 1. During 2006, it became a rail freight operator in the British market, initially transporting aggregates using leased rolling stock. Seco Rail acquired its first locomotives and regular freight customer, Kronospan, during the following year. In early 2008, Colas Group opted to reorganise its rail subsidiaries following recent acquisitions, merging Seco Rail with AMEC-Spie and Carillion's former plant division under the name Colas Rail.
During the late 2000s and early 2010s, Colas Rail continued to pick up more freight services, becoming involved in the haulage of coal and steel amongst other traffics. Further locomotives, such as Class 56s, Class 66s and Class 70s were acquired. By late 2016, Colas Rail was amongst the five largest contractors to Network Rail, and had 1,500 staff in the UK alone. During the 2010s, Colas Rail was engaged as the primary contractor for the Al Boraq high speed rail line in Morocco. Other projects included major improvement works at London Waterloo station and the West Midlands Metro, as well as the construction of the Contournement Nîmes – Montpellier high speed line in France.