Very attached to the railway sector and the industrial production tool, Alain Rousset, the president of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, came to visit our company on February 1st. He met the employees and discovered the Galland innovations. A meaningful meeting and a harbinger of projects at a time when the Region is betting on railways to boost mobility.
"From the design office to the production machines and the stocks, he visited everything, he wanted to see everything, know everything" summarize, enthusiastically, Christophe Khouya, general manager, and Philippe Galland, president of the company.
At Galland, the first magistrate of New Aquitaine was on familiar ground: "He started his career in industry and has remained very close to this sector. He is familiar with our issues and he appreciates innovations: we also presented him with the monitoring of our oleopneumatic tensioning device, the AERO, developed with the Bordeaux company Preditic." remembers Christophe Khouya. Galland and the Region are already long-standing partners, through ADI Nouvelle-Aquitaine (editor’s note: it is the armed wing of the Region for economic development, innovation, attractiveness and support for transitions) which supports the development of the connected catenary, and via the “Factory of the Future” certification which was awarded to our company in 2020.
Rail: a priority in New Aquitaine
Beyond a simple courtesy visit, this meeting took place in a context favorable to the railway. Indeed, the State has given full powers to the Regions to develop the railway. The railway is one of the priorities of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, which has invested massively in the lines in recent years: Alain Rousset defends the idea that an eco-responsible territory must, as a matter of urgency, turn to rail transport. To renovate the lines, prepare the future TER and RER, the Region has launched the Ferrocampus expertise and training center in Saintes (Charente-Maritime), of which Galland is a pillar.
"Our company can be a key innovative player for the future of regional railways. This is the message we conveyed to Alain Rousset on February 1st. We are simply offering him our expertise in the field of catenary." underlines Christophe Khouya. "When I saw him off, Alain Rousset told me: we'll see each other again very, very soon, because many railway projects are going to come out in the region.".
Galland will be there, Mr. President!
