SAFEGE () is a French consulting and engineering firm, founded as a consortium of 25 companies including Michelin and Renault. The name is an acronym for Société Anonyme Française d'Etude de Gestion et d'Entreprises ().

SAFEGE was originally founded in 1919 as Société Auxiliaire Française d'Électricité, Gaz et Eau (), a holding company with interests in private water, gas, and electricity production and distribution. Following the nationalization of these public utilities in 1947, the company was reorganized as an engineering and consulting firm.

Today, SAFEGE operates as a subsidiary of Suez, specializing in water and environmental engineering. The majority of its business activity—around 60% of turnover—is based in France.

SAFEGE type monorail

The SAFEGE consortium developed a type of suspension railway technology in the late 1950s. The design team was headed by engineer Lucien Chadenson.

thumb|SAFEGE test track in [[Châteauneuf-sur-Loire, 1963]]

The system was conceived as a potential extension of the Paris Métro, intended to connect Charenton to Créteil, southeast of Paris. Construction of a full-scale test track began in April 1959 and was completed in April 1960. Testing continued until 1967. The test track appeared prominently in the 1966 film Fahrenheit 451. Although initially popular, it experienced mechanical issues, and after the first two years ridership declined. Plans to expand the zoo and gardens led to its closure, but one of the cars and a short section of track were preserved at a station site. Although marketed primarily as an amusement ride, it charged a fare, making it the first revenue-earning SAFEGE-type monorail. Manchester later developed the Metrolink, a light rail network, one line of which, opened in 2014, now connects Manchester Airport to the city centre.

In November 1967, General Electric proposed constructing a SAFEGE-type monorail linking downtown San Francisco with San Francisco International Airport. The proposal was studied by the City of San Francisco alongside alternatives, including an extension of the Southern Pacific Railroad's Peninsula Commute service and an extension of the BART rapid transit system. Concerns about incompatibility with other rail systems, the visual impact of an elevated structure, and potential competition with existing and planned rapid transit lines led to the proposal's rejection in favor of a BART extension. SFO was ultimately connected to downtown San Francisco by BART in 2003.

References

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  • Monorail society: Technical PageSafege. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
  • SAFEGE company Web site, in English
  • SAFEGE in Poland website