President Emmanuel Macron has suggested the idea that, starting with 2020, the French state could take over SNCF’s debt, currently worth EUR 46 billion. The huge debt was among the main reasons a reform of the French Railways was decided. The reform was adopted by the Senate in mid-April, although public opinion voiced dissatisfaction and railway unions held countless general strikes. Moreover, the railway unions belonging to SNCF announced that the strikes will still be organised by the end of June.
These are a response to President Macron’s ambitions to restructure SNCF, to revise the special employment status of SNCF rail workers (that allows them a job for life), to liberalise the domestic rail passenger market and a series of investments meant to improve the rail industry in general.
Thus, starting with 2020, SNCF will become a public company, with two subsidiaries SNCF Réseau and SNCF Mobilités. According to the adopted reform plan, Fret SNCF (the railway freight and logistics operator) will be restructured and will be included as a subsidiary of SNCF Mobilités. Fret SNCF will be wholly owned by the state, although before the reform the French government announced that it did not intend to hold any capital in this company. Fret SNCF currently has a debt of EUR 4.3 billion and if no concrete measures are taken, it could amount to EUR 5.1 billion by 2020. It is assumed that restructuring will result in more financial transparency.
Prime Minister Eduard Phillippe, Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot and Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne announced several measures targeting in particular the rail freight sector. Among these measures is the ambition to revise track access charges to make them more competitive, as they have increased much lately, according to reports in the French media.
SNCF is still in charge of establishing an activity plan that should revise the rail freight sector. Measures should include infrastructure improvements, dedicated freight transport paths and a more solid traffic management policy.
In addition, the French rail market will be open to competition, a measure aimed at improving the overall quality of the sector. Competition will be allowed in the form of open access market as well as through franchised operations, although open access competition will not start earlier than 2020. Regional operators will be able to bid on transport paths shortly after December 2019.
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