It does no harm just this once, so the saying goes. For the past several days, hundreds of SNCF passengers have been on strike to protest the worsening quality of their train journeys.

Ageing infrastructure, signalling failures, rolling stock almost life-expired…The difficulties besetting the railway operator are multi-faceted.

Who would have thought that train users would one day go on strike….exactly like railwaymen and women at times! This past week has been marked by dozens of commuters on the Angers-Le Mans-Paris route simply refusing to show their tickets to train inspectors, arguing that travel conditions on their line are getting worse all the time. These regular commuters, sporting a “striking season ticketholder” badge, demand refund of their fares for loss of working days during the wave of Autumn railway strikes. Pascal Mignot, spokesperson for the movement, which has yet to transform into an association, argues “that the quality of service has sharply deteriorated, with fares getting more expensive, and repeated train delays which are proving highly disruptive for workers.

But they are not alone to protest. The national operator, following the different end-of-year incidents including the nightmarish Strasbourg-Port Bou train journey, the October strikes, plus constant delays and recurring train failures, has aroused public anger on a scale that is now developing into proactive commuter militancy. According to RFF, 70% of these delays are directly ascribable to rolling-stock and organisational problems. Ageing infrastructures, signaling failures, (virtually) life-expired rolling stock,… these are just some of the many  difficulties facing the train operator , and given the lack of investments, things may yet get worse!  Investment funding is proving to be the most acute of all the many problems (organisational ones in particular) encountered by SNCF, even though in 2008 the operator unveiled an unprecedented € 6 – 8 billion programme to revamp its first-generation TGV fleet introduced in 1981. But those were the days when business was buoyant, future prospects looked bright and growth  forecasts were justifiably very optimistic. However, the crisis has put a different complexion on things: railborne freight volumes have shrunk, while passenger numbers are stagnating and even  reducing on some routes. The company declared a loss of € 1 billion for 2009 whilst its debt liability is close to hitting the € 10 billion mark. The upshot of all this is that prospects for rolling-stock orders (excluding rehabilitation contracts) are nil. To quote Jean-Pierre Audoux, Delegate-General of the French Railway Industries Association(FIF), “…TGV replacement plans have been frozen and SNCF has reduced its freight-related investments by half”.  Today, the two ongoing investment projects for replacement of the Corail fleet and the procurement of modern Intercity trains are being funded by the State and the Regions. Only recently, the  SNCF Group CFO reported that unless between € 1 and 1.5 billion can be found to pay for network maintenance and train investments, the operator will simply have no choice but to scale down its “railway ambitions”….

The other critical issue is of course the steady deterioration of the infrastructure network. In theory, responsibility for funding  rehabilitation of the conventional network and building new lines lies with Infrastructure Manager RFF. Here too, however, funds are in short supply and, as pointedly remarked by Jean-Pierre Audoux « ….In the rail sector, what we have is a vicious circle, for when investments are scarce, you end-up with more maintenance work which in turn translates into further train delays, additional costs and less investments …” Since the Rivier report on the state of the RFF infrastructure network was published in 2005, it is now common knowledge that up to 1000km of conventional line must be rehabilitated each year, failing which an increasing part of the network will simply become unfit for use. In 2010 the conventional-network rehabilitation plan adopted by Government resulted in some 800km of tracks being modernised annually at a cost of € 1.7 billion. For Jean-Pierre Audoux “….it would take another  € 400 million year-on-year to stop the network becoming technically obsolescent”. Even allowing for contributions made by the Regions, available funds risk being insufficient. As things now stand RFF, which already invests some € 5 billion annually, is in no position to increase this budget, even though it is also supposed to fund the new TGV lines selected by the Grenelle Environment Summit. Four major projects (Rhine-Rhône HSL, Eastern HSL, Le Mans-Rennes and Tours-Bordeaux HSL ) should  be completed in the none-too-distant future. For Jean-Pierre Audoux, the investment package for new HSL projects should normally increase from the current € 2 billion annually to some € 3.5 billion by 2014, but mobilising such sums is far from being a done deal!

According to Usine Nouvelle, which has costed the overall budget for this investment effort, SNCF and RFF  would require to raise € 40 000 billion over the next ten years…With both parties unable to fund  such huge investments and resorting to mutual “buck-passing” , the question of who pays what remains unanswered.  RFF pleads in particular for a sharp increase in track access fees, but the annual hike of € 50 million obtained from the Finance Ministry for the next 5 years, albeit welcome news, is hardly likely to cure the problem.

In these circumstances, rail users have every right to feel angry, for quite apart from suffering the consequences of a worsening quality of service, they are also staring at gradual fares increases.…. But the good news here is that the operator does not have a totally free hand in the matter.  As we know, politicians already do not take too kindly to higher train-ticket prices, which tend to reduce the purchasing power of households. Furthermore SNCF will soon be facing competition on international routes, and subsequently in domestic traffic, which means it must stay competitive. This perhaps explains its recent decision to pull out all the stops for 12 “problem” routes….only to declare just a few days later that  no firm commitment had yet been made!