At the end of the transfers of transport powers from the State Departments to the Regions, and the resumption of 18 lines of Territory Equilibrium Trains (TET – a category of trains between TER regional express trains and mainline trains), one third of the Regions’ budget, or more than EUR11 billion per year, will be devoted to transport and mobility. However, many obstacles and uncertainties still weigh on the resources of the Regions, reducing their ability to sustain and develop especially the daily transport, now identified as a priority of the French Government.
Despite an abundance of funds for the regions, of more than EUR 6.6 billion per year, and an unprecedented development effort in the last two decades, rail passenger transport is caught between a lack of control for a level-playing field of the operating costs between different modes of transport, an improvement of the quality of service that hinders the progress of revenues, an unsustainable trajectory of changes in rail track access charges (TACs) and a drift of the tax burden on conventional transport activities.
The French White Paper on Mobilities shows that the Regions spent in 2017 not less than EUR 4.5 billion for the operation of regional transport and invested EUR 1.7 billion on rolling stock and infrastructure. Thus, the Regions first highlight the gap between resources and projects, with the first effects of the new decentralization stage: EUR 2 billion for interurban rail transport and a first budget of EUR100 million for the gradual recovery of Intercités services. Faced with this, budget allocations are declining more and more clearly.
To top it all, the increase of TACs by 3% per year until 2026 angered the French Regions while, at the same time, the State and SNCF Réseau (the French rail infrastructure manager) are financing less and less the renewal of the railway network. The increase of TACs is estimated at about EUR 125 million additional costs per year, but without any guarantee of sustainability of the rail network.
Every year, in Île-de-France, 9.4 million people use public transport and in other regions of France 3.5 million benefit from TER trains (suburban trains). The previous common commitments of the State and the Regions made it possible to initiate the preparation of the gradual opening to competition of regional rail passenger services.
The mission led by Jean-Cyril Spinetta on the future of the railway should lead as soon as possible to a framework law for the preparation of opening towards competition. This must be an opportunity to allow regions, expressing their wish in this respect, to award, through tenders, or to run on a management basis or through a public institution, the operation of their rail services, in flexible and differentiated ways, adapted to each territory. Jean-Cyril Spinetta is the former chiarman of Air France and the French Government entrusted him, this October, the entire reorganisation and reform of the railway sector: the organisation of the TGV service, TACs and the reorientation of rail investments towards regional RER networks. Three “dimensions” are considered: rail strategy, economic and financial strategy and strategy of opening to competition. The entire scheme is supposed to lead to a vast “law of orientation of the mobilities”, and a report in this respect will have to be issued in the very first months of 2018. The most complex project that Jean-Cyril Spinetta will have to deal with is the reinvention of the economic model, especially regarding the TGV service as “TGV tickets are considered expensive and, at the same time, 70% of journeys are in deficit”, as Spinetta said.
Opening up to competition
The French Regions have already committed themselves to initiating this preparation for opening up to competition, in particular by defining the modalities for getting out of their current operating agreements of the coherent and relevant regional sub-groups to exploit and operate them in accordance to the new framework.
The guarantee of a framework of clean and transparent contractual relations must allow, as soon as the law is voted, an irrefutable access to the data necessary to negotiate on a fair basis the agreements being renewed with SNCF Mobilités. Also, the expected framework has to prepare future calls for tenders and the recovery of rolling stock ownership and the management of service facilities.
It is clear that the shareholdings of the French State and its public institutions established in order to finance transport infrastructure have declined sharply for several years, while the need for mobility is not at all declining, instead it is increasing. The competences of the Regions in the field of transport are more and more engaging, in a context of mobility development.
As a result, the Regions are called upon to co-finance the rail infrastructure on a massive scale, often being the first financiers, without being equipped with this competence to act. In order to bring actions and resources back into line, the Regions must be provided with a renewed tax package to fully assume these development tasks in connection with the State. Regions must freely dispose of different tax levers according to the needs and typologies of each territory.
“The Government reaffirms the role of the State, national strategy, while consolidating the prerogatives of the regions that are the transport organising authorities in the territories. This reform addresses the challenges of public service quality, cost and financial sustainability, in the interest of users and territories”, the French Government says.
However, the Regions are separated by divisions: not all of them are in favor of the end of the State monopoly in principle or even hostile to the principle of asking others what they would be capable of bringing forth. Similarly, some regional elected officials are sketching out the possibility of recovering the ownership of threatened national railway network lines to keep them in another legal form, but are they ready to bring the topic to the legislative level to amend the law and to enable it?
Share on:
