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French railway infrastructure manager Reseau Ferre de France, or RFF, hopes a Vinci SA (DG.FR) consortium will find a funding solution by the end of this month for a public-private partnership contract, an RFF spokeswoman told Dow Jones Newswires.

"We hope there will be a funding solution by the end of October," the spokeswoman said. She noted the RFF is holding a board meeting Oct. 14.

The EUR1-billion public private partnership contract is for a GSM network along railway lines, and includes the financing, the construction and the running of the GSM network for 15 years.

In February, the RFF said they had selected the offer from the TDF consortium, consisting of French construction and concession company Vinci SA's Vinci Energie and Vinci Concessions, Vivendi SA's (VIVDY) telecom operator, SFR, and AXA SA's (AXA) AXA Investment Managers Paris.

The RFF said in February it would turn to the second best candidate if discussions with TDF did not succeed, but it didn't say which candidate that would have been.

Other offers came from consortiums led by Vinci's French peer, Eiffage SA (FGR.FR), Franco-U.S. telecommunications equipment company Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) and French building-to-broadcasting giant Bouygues SA (EN.FR).

RFF Web site: www.rff.fr

-By William Horobin, Dow Jones Newswires; +33 1 4017 1740; william.horobin@dowjones.com