Jones Day, Norton Rose and Allen & Overy (A&O) are among a raft of firms winning advisory roles on one of the first ever French public-private-partnership (PPP) rail infrastructure projects, valued at €3.3bn (£2.9bn).

Jones Day Paris public law partner Philippe Delelis advised French national rail network owner Reseau Ferre de France (RFF) on the project, which will see the creation of a high speed rail link between Le Mans and Rennes in the North West of France. Norton Rose Paris PPP head Philippe Mallea advised construction group Eiffage, which has been chosen by RFF to build the link.

A&O advised government bodies Direction des Fonds d'Epargne (DFE) and Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC) on the deal, with Paris finance counsel Geoffrey Levesque leading a team that also included senior associate Jean-Luc Champy and finance partner Rod Cork.

Meanwhile Clifford Chance (CC) and Linklaters advised the banks, with CC acting for commercial lenders including Santander and Societe Generale and Linklaters advising the European Investment Bank.

French finance partner Daniel Zerbib led for CC, while Paris banking partner Bertrand Andriani led for Linklaters.

RFF will provide around €1.4bn (£1.23bn) of financing for the project, with the remainder to be split between the local communities and the state. Eiffage will receive around €250m (219.6m) from CDC/DFE, with €553m (£485.8m) coming from the EIB and €1bn (£878m) from the pool of commercial banks.

A&O's Levesque said: "We are delighted to have advised CDC/DFE on this matter – the fourth PPP on which we have now collaborated with CDC/DFE.

"The project reached successful closing in a short timeframe, thanks to the efforts of all parties involved and their counsel, and particularly to the Eiffage team. We have played an active role on all of RFF's major infrastructure projects over the past few years."

The new rail link is due to go live in September 2016 and will be known as Bretagne Pays de Loire. Construction is set to start next year, with the final line expected to cut the journey time between Rennes and Paris to less than 1.5 hours.