The difficult beginnings of rail competition in France

DTwo months following the entry into service of Trenitalia’s Italian high-speed trains on the Paris-Lyon-Milan route, the feedback is positive. Bernard Roman, president of the Transport Regulatory Authority (ART, ex-Arafer with powers extended to road and airport), welcomes this. “Meeted in the Senate during a hearing, Roberto Rinaudo, president of Trenitalia France, told me that he was delighted with the first results of the line, above his forecasts, and will soon launch three additional services. This reinforces ART’s observation that opening up to competition constitutes a major lever for the development and revitalization of passenger rail transport, to the benefit of all stakeholders, including the incumbent operator ( SNCF Voyageurs*, in this case).

This observation results from the observation of traffic in Germany, Sweden and Italy, countries which have been open to rail competition for at least a decade. In Germany, while alternative rail operators represent more than a third of the passenger rail transport market, the incumbent rail operator – Deutsche Bahn – has seen its traffic and revenues grow since it was opened up to competition at the start of the 1990s. “Thus, opening up to competition does not result in a simple substitution of services operated until then by the incumbent rail operator by new entrants. On the contrary, it is the vector of a new breath for the rail system as a whole”, observes Bernard Roman. “In the case of Paris-Lyon-Milan, the introduction of a top-of-the-range fourth class will encourage SNCF Voyageurs to focus on quality. »

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The growth potential of the French rail network constitutes a real space for the development of new traffic. It shows less use by passenger transport services. With nearly 37 daily passenger train movements per line kilometer and per day, the intensity of the movements is lower than the average observed in Europe, which stands at 44 movements. Even the high-speed lines are not saturated.

The arrival of Trenitalia on the most intensely traveled high-speed axis between Paris and Lyon demonstrates this. The entry of Trenitalia was not made to the detriment of SNCF Voyageurs, which was not forced to reduce its number of movements to make room for the new entrant. Faced with this demand, the rail network manager, SNCF Réseau, was able to maintain the number of frequencies desired by SNCF Voyageurs while allowing Trenitalia to operate its new routes.

Tolls too high

Among the notable obstacles, the level of tolls, these royalties for access to the rail infrastructure, is relatively high in France. They thus represent almost 90% of the revenue of the infrastructure manager in France (SNCF Réseau), while they cover, on average, around 50% of the costs of infrastructure managers in other European countries. The distortion of competition is almost institutional. “The dependency between SNCF Réseau and SNCF Voyageurs means that by 2030, nearly 20% of SNCF Réseau’s investments must be financed by dividends from SNCF Voyageurs. The infrastructure manager is thus strongly interested in the success of the incumbent operator, much more than that of new entrants,” deplores ART.

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Another blatant case of a brake on opening, when a new entrant has to take back rolling stock from the SNCF, which lost the call for tenders, the latter is reluctant to transmit the maintenance log for the locomotives and cars concerned, arguing maintenance procedures are a trade secret. The subject will soon be decided by the Court of Appeal in the case of regional trains which must be transferred to Hauts-de-France. And when it comes to railway jobs, the SNCF offers a number of full-time jobs reduced by 30% following the intervention of the ART.

* Since 1^is January 2020, SNCF Voyageurs (formerly SNCF Mobilités) is a subsidiary of the SNCF holding company responsible for running trains, while SNCF Réseau (formerly RFF) is another subsidiary responsible for infrastructure management and maintenance. The European texts which govern the opening up to competition must avoid any consanguinity. In principle.