Exclusive Interview with Jean-Charles Vollery, Group CEO & Chairman, Systra

In an exclusive interview with Metro Rail Today, Dr. Vinod Shah speaks with Mr. Jean-Charles Vollery, the newly appointed Group CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board at SYSTRA. With nearly three decades of experience in international transport infrastructure, Mr. Vollery shares insights into his vision for the future of SYSTRA, his journey within the company, and the significance of his recent visit to India.

Known for his expertise in managing large-scale infrastructure projects globally, including metro systems, high-speed rail, and motorways, Mr. Vollery reflects on his leadership experiences and outlines his plans to drive SYSTRA's continued growth and innovation in the rapidly evolving global transportation landscape. This interview offers a unique glimpse into his strategic approach to steering the company towards new heights.

What are your immediate priorities in this new leadership role, and how do you plan to steer SYSTRA towards its next phase of growth?

SYSTRA has a long-lasting history of over 65 years, designing safe and sustainable transport solutions for the populations we serve. The Group is today a world champion, ranked 6^th in the transport category among global engineering companies, 2^nd in the category Mass Transit & Rail, and all 11,000 of us around the globe are very proud to see this ranking improving every year.

SYSTRA has contributed to one metro in two and one high-speed line in two in the world.

As the new CEO, I intend to continue this success story! Based on our pure player strategy, our unique positioning is being driven by the dynamic transport infrastructure market: 15.3% CAGR in India for the total infrastructure (including railways) sector till 2030, while the global infrastructure construction sector is set to reach a year-on-year growth of 10.4%. Supported by our new shareholding structure, we will be able to accelerate the pace of our growth thanks to organic performance and acquisitions. Our business model is structured around home countries and regions, through our subsidiaries in India, France, the UK, Brazil, Sweden, Canada, the USA, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand, and Asia. We have also a specific Business Unit names “international” covering the rest of the world as we are actively delivering projects in nearly 80 countries. And our teams are highly connected, making us the world's largest rail engineering consultancy, capable of supporting all the most ambitious projects across the globe.  

The first priority is to continue to work on great projects, mainly in transport, cultivate our technical excellence, our connected teams. We're going to move forward faster, investing more in our operational efficiency, thanks to the new possibilities offered by artificial intelligence, for example. Several emblematic projects have been won recently, such as theGurugram metro line (circular line new Delhi) and Bhubaneswar metro line phase 1, attributed by DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) in India,  Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop project in D&B in Australia,  Vancouver’s SkyTrain Surrey-Langley line in Canada,  Copenhagen’s Metro line 5 in Denmark and the Chicago Red Line extension in the USA, to name a few.

Second, there will also be new acquisitions, which are one of the pillars of our development, to acquire expertise and achieve critical mass in certain home countries.

SYSTRA’s presence in India has been transformative, with several high-profile projects such as the Gurugram Metro expansion and Ahmedabad Railway Station redevelopment. What excites you most about the ongoing transformation of India’s transport sector, and how does SYSTRA plan to deepen its involvement in the country?

SYSTRA has been present in India since 1957, when the company was still called Sofrerail. We exported SNCF know-how to electrify Indian railways, and this was the first contract in our history. After a period of absence, we returned in the 1990s, in particular to carry out studies on the New Delhi metro, the country's first modern metro.

In 2006, we established ourselves on a long-term basis with the creation of a local subsidiary, which I had the honour of managing for almost 6 years. We have gradually broadened our scope. Initially, SYSTRA's activity focused on studies and engineering, but we have since added construction supervision and project management services.

To date, we have carried out studies and contributed to the construction of 430 metro stations, 900km of viaducts and dozens of kilometres of tunnels. India has become a centre of expertise for the Group, providing studies for projects in other parts of the world, not only in Asia but also in Europe, Middle East and the United Kingdom, where we have been involved in the high-speed line project between London and Birmingham.

In 2024, our subsidiary in India employed 2,400 people, the majority of whom are local employees, reflecting our strong roots in the country.

SYSTRA has always been a key player in the global mobility sector. With India becoming a hub for several metro and rail projects, what strategies do you envisage to leverage this growth and further enhance SYSTRA’s role in India and globally?

We work mainly on metro projects, but also on rail projects, particularly on strategic freight corridors such as the country's Eastern and Western rail corridors and the new regional train systems being developed around New Delhi (the NCRTC network). The Eastern Freight Corridor, which is currently being commissioned, was 90% supervised by SYSTRA, which also provided project management.

In addition, we are involved in a number of road projects and other types of extended transport. As for future high-speed line projects using technologies other than those developed in Japan, we will be there to contribute to them, drawing on our in-depth knowledge of the Indian market.

As mentioned earlier, the metro and rail expertise developed in India will help the rest of the Group to accelerate its development.

Digitalisation and sustainability are two critical aspects of the future of transport. How does SYSTRA plan to integrate these principles into its projects, especially in the context of rapidly evolving markets like India?

Digitalisation and Sustainability go hand in hand: SYSTRA has developed a holistic and systemic approach to sustainable design, concerning all expertise and all phases of a project. This is based on interdisciplinary tools and methods – connected to BIM – which enable us to understand all the phases of the projects entrusted to us.

We are strengthening the implementation of sustainable design and construction methods in each of our projects, we are reducing the impact that infrastructure has on the climate and on the environment, throughout their lifecycle.

Proprietary Digital solutions like Carbontracker, which directly calculates the carbon impact of new infrastructures from a project’s BIM model throughout all the project stages respond effectively to the challenges of climate change. It enables us understanding how to reduce the environmental impacts of an infrastructure project, from its construction to its long-term operation.

Additionally, we support our clients’ energy transition through digital modelling solutions. These measure the impact of various scenarios on energy consumption with more precision, so that clients can select the best technical solutions and then size and optimise their transport systems. Examples of these solutions include our Web ITSIM application, which shows the impacts of transitioning to a new energy mix on a public transport network, and our MEFEM (Multi Energy Financial & Environmental Model). We also develop new collaborative methods with the e-PMC, a digital project management tool developed in-house by our team, to facilitate real-time and interactive project monitoring and control.

Today, our strategy in this area is accelerating. We are putting artificial intelligence at the service of improving our internal performance. And we are helping clients implement future digital tools, real digital twins of their infrastructures, providing an up-to-date and predictive vision of their assets.

In India, we  have already succeeded in implementing such solutions:

- In Chennai, shrinking by 40% of the size of the metro stations enabled smaller ventilation systems, less concrete for the construction, less volume of material to excavate, and less electric consumption.

- In Nagpur, SYSTRA has received a Platinum Award from the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) for the Jhansi Rani Square Metro station, for its efficient use of natural resources.

-  In Nagpur too, our client MMMRCL has received a Platinum Award for the Metro Bhavan administrative building for which we designed a butterfly-shaped structure on the roof and implemented solar panels.

During your recent visit to India, you mentioned the importance of strengthening client satisfaction and team well-being. How do you plan to foster a culture of collaboration and innovation within SYSTRA, both internally and with external stakeholders?

SYSTRA has a unique scheme of international production, in which every expert, regardless of location on the planet, can be connected to everyone. We call it ‘Connected Teams’, and that helps us capitalise on expertise, providing the best experts to our clients, and that is a reality in lots of major projects we handle:

• Indian experts are working on the HS2 Main Works Civils Contracts in the UK (700 employees from 7 production centres, including India), the AlUla Tram and the Kuwait-KSA high-speed link projects in Saudi Arabia, the Etihad Rail project and the Dubai blue Iine in the UAE, and also the Manilla North-South Commuter Rail project.
• India receives expertise from France or UK on some highly technical questions
• SYSTRA has even bagged some projects like the Itaparica bridge project in Brazil, thanks to the references of bridges built in India.

Apart from connected teams, the appeal of our model and the diversity of our projects are two key levers. We also have to keep our promises and uphold our values on a day-to-day basis. The projects in which we are involved bring people together and our connected teams structure helps create a shared culture which values each person’s contribution. Over these last few years, our increased investment in sustainability has been a source of meaning for all Group employees.

Regarding our clients, improving the quality of our relationships with them is key. This is underpinned by our in-depth knowledge of local issues and by our desire to create trust and long term partnerships. It is also solidity built on our ethical principles, our approach to risk management, health and safety and sustainability as well as our technical expertise.

India’s metro network is expanding rapidly, with over 993 kilometres operational and more under construction. How do you see this growth influencing SYSTRA’s approach to future metro and rail projects, and what opportunities do you foresee in this sector?

Rapid urbanization and increasing population in Indian cities have led to traffic congestion and environmental degradation. There is a real need for urban transport in India, and the government invests around €120 billion every year in infrastructure. India’s metro rail network, now the third largest globally after the US and China, has become a vital innovation in addressing these challenges. As per the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, over 10 million passengers use metro daily, highlighting their crucial role in urban mobility.

SYSTRA sees a great opportunity to continue to optimize and standardize the solutions with better overall integration with other modes of transports (including “last mile” connectivity), higher focus on health and safety as well as sustainability. By embracing digitalization in design and construction management (e-PMC), SYSTRA can increase capacity, enhance efficiency, and ensure precision in project delivery. This approach, combined with India’s large upcoming infrastructure investments, positions us to develop cutting-edge solutions that will serve as global benchmarks.

Higher investments in Regional Rapid Transit Systems (RRTS) and high-speed corridor projects, aligns with our strength in engineering and project management. SYSTRA having experience with all High Speed Rail technologies and being totally independent from the manufacturers, will be able to advise India in selecting and implementing the best technology according to its specific needs.

Your career has been marked by leadership in some of the world’s most complex infrastructure projects. What lessons from your journey with SYSTRA in India and globally do you believe will be crucial in leading the company forward?

I've been with SYSTRA for all my professional life, over 28 years! This has enabled me to acquire a wide range of experience on all types of projects and as an engineer, I love complex, challenging projects! I've spent a large part of my career in India and it's a market that I know well and that I've seen evolve considerably and from which I have learnt a lot, thanks to incredible persons such as E. Sreedharan, who was managing Delhi metro when I was living there and who has been a source of inspiration to me.

The Indian market is characterised by a desire for speed, with ambitious development targets in an exciting and demanding environment. This dynamic drives us to innovate and offer appropriate construction solutions. Local governments want results fast, with metro lines sometimes built in three years.

It is therefore necessary to reconcile the complexity of local environments with this need for speed, while guaranteeing world-class infrastructure, both in terms of safety during construction and in the operational phase.

It is this ability to adapt that is contributing to our success in the Indian market and elsewhere!

SYSTRA has been a leader in sustainable mobility for over 65 years. How do you see the role of transportation infrastructure evolving in the coming decade, particularly in terms of smart mobility solutions, energy transition, and carbon-neutral transport systems?

As a transport and mobility engineering company, we have a huge role to play in the field of sustainability, in all its aspects.In the face of climate change, we especially focus on resource management (biodiversity, water…) and on dealing with the carbon footprint.We need to build resilient infrastructures that have a positive long-term impact. These objectives are shared with our clients and partners, because the future of our planet is at stake. Opting for sustainable design and construction in our projects is the best solution. To support our clients with their own sustainability targets, we use our sustainable design and construction framework and deliver training programmes to help our teams adopt it rapidly.

Looking ahead, what is your vision for SYSTRA’s position in the global market by 2030, especially in light of the strategic collaborations and innovations the company is pursuing?

Our objective is to double our turnover from €1 billion+ to €2 billion, and to double our employees to 20,000, thanks to organic growth and targeted acquisitions.

We aim to keep the pace as an engineering independent leader focused on transportation solutions.There is a lot of opportunities ahead of us!

Finally, as a leader who has been deeply involved in SYSTRA’s growth and transformation, what excites you most about the future of urban mobility, and how do you see SYSTRA contributing to the creation of more connected and sustainable cities?

Transportation is a strong market, on which opportunities are still immense for creating new networks.

After that will come the time of modernising the networks created from 1990’s to now, thanks to the evolution of operational systems equipment.

SYSTRA has a long track record of innovative and world-first projects, and innovation remains a high-level topic for us with automated metros and the digitalisation of our production processes.

Transportation is also at the heart of the energy transition, which is a crucial goal to reach.

Personally, SYSTRA is the first and only company for which I have worked. Since 1996, I have been able to witness and to measure how much the company has changed, been internationalised and how it has kept its independence from our competitors.

Speaking about the future of urban mobility, we will have to provide ever more sustainable solutions helping to decarbonise cities. The Group has specific expertise in this area, and we capitalise on this expertise through the projects that we manage throughout the world.

At SYSTRA we have the honour and privilege to be able to transform and improve daily lives of people by providing safe and sustainable transportation solutions. This is something we are all proud within the company.