The railway industrial sector, a key topic to revisit after the summer break? Quite possibly, judging from the raft of proposals being framed to help decision-making by the public authorities.

Since last Spring, no fewer than five reports and audits on the state of the French railway manufacturing industry have either been released or will shortly be finalised. Following publication of Senator Francis Grignon’s  report (LLA n01470 ), of the audit carried out by Member of Parliament Hervé Mariton last May, and of the conclusions of the Parliamentary commission of inquiry in June, two further audits are awaited mid-July. The first of these is driven by the Regional Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development (CGEDD, successor to the Regional Council for the Highway Department), while the second is being conducted by René Abate, former President of Boston Consulting Group, both commissioned by Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet (NKM), Ecology and Transport Minister, and Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. This succession of surveys is all the more remarkable as the subject at issue had been in limbo for far too long, despite the growing difficulties faced by the sector. True, the alarm-bells had been rung by Alstom in 2010, but then the predicament in which medium and small-size companies found themselves called for utmost vigilance. The number of companies driven out of business over the past ten months has shot up, cases in point being the firms of SAEP and Sofanor which, after filing for bankruptcy, were subsequently the object of a successful takeover bid.  Sambre & Meuse Foundries narrowly averted the same fate thanks to a Russian bail-out last February, etc.

Pending the findings of the latter two reports and the conclusions of the special conference on railways sponsored by the Ecology and Transport Minister and scheduled for later Summer, the rail sector strategic committee chaired by Louis Nègre, has set the consultation process in motion. Against this background, several initiatives designed to improve solidarity between sector players and energise relations between principal and contractor are under consideration, including for example the institution of a procurement platform common to Alstom   and Bombardier so as to facilitate the management of stocks and flows with their suppliers.