Could SNCF have turned into a wild, driverless train ? After a nightmarish end-of-year marked by repeated incidents (train cancellations and delays, inversions of TGV sets, etc.), the sad truth to emerge is that the quality of its services is steadily declining.  “Perhaps we shouldn’t have  run a train service that night » is the only  comment  served by SNCF in its conclusions to the report on the farcical saga of Lunéa train 4295 which left Strasbourg (Lower Rhine) on 26 December, arriving Port Bou (Eastern Pyrenees)  fifteen hours out of schedule after a journey lasting  twenty-four hours! This by no means is a one-off incident judging by the punishment routinely inflicted on hapless passengers on some routes, including for example Paris-Basel or Paris-Caen, both urgently in need of upgrading. Unsurprisingly, these dysfunctionings stem directly from under-investments which, as highlighted in the findings of a recent “Usine Nouvelle” study, could amount to € 40 billion minimum just to restore normal service on the lines identified, equivalent to the aggregate debt compiled by French Infrastructure Manager RFF and SNCF…A bitter pill to swallow, to say the least!

ROLLING-STOCK FLEET RENEWAL : € 20 BILLION The fleet has aged appreciably and lacks proper maintenance. For RFF, over 70% of train delays are ascribable to train breakdowns and SNCF organisational shortcomings. The National Federation of Transport Users Associations (FNAUT) and the SNCF labour unions are much more cautious in their assessment,blaming train breakdowns for only 50% of all delays. Even the TGV shop-window is showing signs of cracks, which is hardly surprising given that the first trainsets were placed in service way back  in 1981. Some of them are due for replacement in 2014, but with a debt burden expected to go past the € 9 billion mark by end 2011, SNCF has decided to defer this major investment ( worth more than € 8 billion).

The situation is even more critical with the Corail train fleet, which is almost life-expired. The network served by these socially-desirable but loss-making train services for which the state has contractually agreed to fund part of the operating shortfall, carries some 100 000 passengers/day. Central Government, over and above its annual € 210 million contribution, has pledged  a further € 300 million for rolling-stock modernisation , a mere pittance when set against the € 1.4 billion investment judged by the French Railway Industries Association (FIF) to be necessary.

Other black spot : the Ile-de-France (IDF) region where the technical obsolescence of the fleet accounts for 15% of all out-of-schedule running. However, since 2006 when governance of the Ile-de-France Transport Syndicate (STIF) transferred to the Region, a train renewal and rehabilitation programme has finally been set in motion, with the Region and SNCF both funding the € 1.8 billion needed for 172 Transilien trainsets on a fifty-fifty basis. The option taken for an extra  200 sets (€ 2 billion minimum) has still to be confirmed. For the record, the other Regions have earmarked  some € 10 million  to complete the TER modernisation programme.

INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADING : € 20 BILLION

Broken rails, bridges no longer fit for higher speeds, signalling failures …the poor quality of some SNCF services is also ascribable to technically obsolete infrastructure , a typical example being the Paris-Gare-de-Lyon traffic-control centre built in the Thirties but only scheduled for replacement in 2015 ! Where OHL equipment is concerned, some of the wires were laid during the 1920-1950 period, with the result that the length of lines (1700 km) worked at very reduced speed has doubled in just five years.

Here the responsibility for investing lies with RFF. The network rehabilitation plan (worth € 13 billion) as unveiled by Government and RFF in late 2008 provides for an annual spend of € 2 billion until 2015, with the Infra Manager keen for the programme to be prolonged until 2025. With the current plan, 800 km of lines will be rehabilitated annually at the very time when 1 000 km would actually be needed just to maintain the network in good running order and probably 1 500 km to rejuvenate it. “ Rather than stopping the ageing process, all they are doing is slow down the pace of it ”, deplores FIF Delegate-General Jean-Pierre Audoux, who argues that an extra 2 billion should be injected annually over ten years.

Referring to the Ile-de-France network and its advanced state of technical obsolescence, Jean-Pierre Audoux insists that « it will take up to one billion euros annually over ten to fifteen years to put things right”. For FNAUT President Jean Sivardière, «  the current situation is akin to that prevailing in the 60s and 70s before the advent of the RER A system”. Since the days of the Michel Rocard administration (1988-1991) with the launch of Metro Line C and RER Line E, no major network project has seen the light of day.

RETHINKING THE ORGANISATION

UNSA (Transport) Secretary General Eric Tourneboeuf talks openly of « a balkanisation of the railway system with multiple stakeholders but no decision-makers” namely RFF, SNCF business units and Sponsoring Authorities.             Tourneboeuf is critical « of the unbundling of SNCF business units and of its detrimental effects”, while Jean Sivardière deplores the fact “that borrowing a freight loco to help-out a failed Corail train is no longer possible”. Similarly, CGT (Railway Staff) Federal Secretary Alain Prouvenq  drives the point home by stating  that “ a freight-loco or TER train driver can no longer be rostered for duty on a mainline train when its driver is unavailable, as this is no longer permitted”. To restore a degree of flexibility, the CFT Union proposes that “each business unit should have its own rolling stock and personnel, coupled with development of a flexible pool of multi-purpose locomotives and personnel representing 30% of these assets”. The only response from SNCF CEO Guillaume Pépy  to date has been to announce an emergency plan worth several million euros to rehabilitate lines in need of urgent repair”…Not exactly the solution we were craving for!...