French MPs quiz SNCF chief on fate of rail freight subsidiary

Jean-Pierre Farandou, the head of the SNCF Group, who is set to step down at the end of the year, recently fielded questions from the French Parliament. The questions went from the discontinuity of Fret SNCF, to the possibility of a moratorium on its fate and the viability of the new rail freight subsidiary that will enter service following the winding-up of its predecessor.

MP Gabriel Amard, a member of the France Unbowed Party, highlighted that under the terms of the discontinuity plan proposed by the then minister of Transport, Clement Beaune, Fret SNCF was forced to relinquish 23 traffic routes representing 102 million euros in annual revenue. He claimed that the creation of two new entities to replace Fret SNCF, one dedicated to rail freight and the other to locomotive maintenance is “a questionable choice in itself.”

Amard went on to highlight the “red lines” drawn by Beaune which, if crossed, would lead to the cancellation of the plan. “The first red line concerns reverse modal shift. To put it plainly, the elimination of certain rail freight routes could result in an additional 300,000 to 500,000 trucks on French roads (…) while the second red line focuses on the economic viability of the two new entities.”

Risk of reverse modal shift

Amard quizzed Farandou on whether the risk of reverse modal shift was indeed real as an expert’s report on behalf of SNCF labour unions has stated. Secondly, with austerity the guiding light in France’s 2025 State budget, he asked if there was any guarantee that the new entities will have the means to survive and be going concerns. In his reply, Farandou noted that the discontinuity of Fret SNCF was “a complex subject, even a painful one. There’s a lot of resistance to it among workers.”

He continued: “The transfer of the 23 traffic routes in question (20 per cent of the subsidiary’s global traffic), voluntarily abandoned (as per the agreement between France and the European Union over suspected illegal State aid to Fret SNCF), was completed in July. And at this stage, we consider that there has been no modal shift, our competitors having the capacity (to accommodate these routes) and it’s largely Deutsche Bahn’s subsidiary, DB Cargo France, that has taken them on.”

Where there has been modal shift to road is on the France-Italy trade corridor, via Modane, which has been closed to rail traffic since end-August 2023 following a major rockfall in a French Alpine valley, Farandou noted. The line’s re-opening is not expected before spring 2025.

A decision on a moratorium is for the government

Another MP, Peio Dufau, part of a Socialist-leaning alliance and a railway worker himself, as well as a labour union activist, asked how the State and SNCF’s objective of a massive modal shift from road to rail could be reconciled with the discontinuity of Fret SNCF which would have “catastrophic social and environmental consequences.” Was Farandou in favour of a moratorium on the subsidiary’s fate?

He replied: “A moratorium would be for the government to decide. Earlier this week, labour unions demonstrated outside the Ministry of Transport and they were received by the minister’s chief of staff to discuss the matter. “My role as the head of a public corporation has been to implement the discontinuity of Fret SNCF as set out in a letter I received in May 2023 from the then minister of Transport and that instruction continues to stand. It’s up to the government to decide whether to change it.”

Returning to the subject of modal shift, Farandou re-iterated the need for sustained public aid for rail freight and pointed to the success of such a strategy in countries such as Austria, where the modal share of rail freight has risen to 30 per cent compared to only 9-10 per cent in France. “Basically, we have to follow the same ‘recipe’ to re-establish competitive conditions with road haulage. If not, trucks will end up transporting everything,” he added.