Interview with Louis Nègre, President of the French Railway Industries Association (FIF) and Senator for the Alpes-Maritimes Region

La Tribune : You have been President of the French Railway Industries Association for some months now : Give us your first impressions of this sector ?

Louis Nègre : We in this country can pride ourselves on having a number of  fine companies, and our railway manufacturing industry  still ranks among the very best worldwide. However, the sector is undergoing profound change. Since times immemorial, railways have been national systems but with the opening-up of frontiers, SNCF, a historically very important export shop-window for French railway products, is momentarily going through a rough patch at the very time when competition from our Asian rivals is an ever growing threat. It would be very remiss on our part to ignore the powerhouse that Asia, and more particularly China, have become in the railway field. Today Chinese industries are able to offer virtually the full range of components going into rolling-stock or infrastructure building. It won’t be long before they penetrate the European market, and when this happens they will become tough competitors both for conventional  rail (regional trains, freight trains, etc.) and even for high-speed lines . We simply cannot afford to be complacent.

La Tribune : How can French companies respond to this threat ?

Louis Nègre : We need to prioritise research and innovation. Each time French industry develops an innovative product, a market will be found for it. We must also consolidate the manufacturing sector by developing the critical mass required for it effectively to compete with our Chinese rivals. If for example we could develop a Franco-German  cluster, our two industrial bases would then carry more weight collectively than if acting separately and in random order.  In 2006, the joint declaration put-out by the two Transport Ministers of the day had imparted fresh impetus to the Franco-German partnership concept but today this declaration is fast losing much of its initial impact..

La Tribune : But how do you set about creating this common platform ?

Louis Nègre : All of us need to sit round the same table. I recently met with the Secretary of State for Transport to discuss the concept – which is beginning to take shape – of  a broad-based  Franco-German railway commission to re-energise the process, the idea being to bring  together the different sector players including French and German industrialists, train operators, infrastructure managers, regulatory authorities, safety authorities plus the two states. The commission itself would be chaired by the two Transport Ministries. The States are prime movers in this process, and if we want a strong political message to be sent-out, then the ideal scenario could well be for Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel - who both understand only too well the relevance of an efficient Franco-German duo - to mark the occasion with some solemnity . We must be strong if we are to exist tomorrow, otherwise we will become mere sub-contractors for others.

La Tribune : What purpose would this commission serve and how soon could it be set-up ?

Louis Nègre : The commission should be up-and-running fairly soon, hopefully within a matter of months by my reckoning. It should act as a catalyst for a very visionary and ambitious project. In particular it should articulate the major objectives to be pursued in the longer term, underpinned by three major lines of thrust , namely: a Franco-German industrial and strategic project for the coming generation hopefully with a European dimension to it, regulatory and technical harmonisation, and market development. On the industrial front we could do worse than copy an already successful industrial model,  namely Airbus in the aerospace sector, one which  should give us much food for collective thought going forward.