Interview with   Louis Nègre, Vice-Chairman of the Strategic Committee for the Railway Industrial Sector and    Chairman   of the French Railway Industries Association (FIF) 

VR&T. : The Special Conference on Industry  had already highlighted the absence, in the railway manufacturing sector like in most other industrial sectors, of a genuine, structured and cohesive block. What is your assessment of the efforts and actions deployed since Summer 2010 ?

Louis Nègre : You are right to focus on the   beneficial,   even salutary role,  played by this Special Conference .. Convened at the instigation of the President of the Republic, it has helped heighten awareness of the fact that our country, unlike countries as different as Germany, China, Japan or South Korea, suffers critically from the absence of a genuine industrial sector, and that failing an in-depth collective effort, our industries would simply continue to lose market share and yet more jobs.  Against this fairly sombre background, the railway sector stakeholders – including the trade unions, which displayed a very constructive approach during the different workshops held - opted to regroup around the FIF within a strategic committee in order to develop   a genuine railway industrial sector in our country. A first step report was recently circulated by the steering committee for the railway industrial sector (which I chair) to all strategic committee members on 9 November last, and hopefully its analysis of the current situation and of the possible action avenues proposed will be endorsed by them. This consultation exercise will then translate into the preparation of the final  report in March 2012.

VR&T. What are the initial scenarios mentioned in this step report ?

Louis Nègre : You will appreciate the difficulty for me to be as explicit as you would wish until such time as this step report is actually endorsed by an official meeting of the strategic committee for the railway industrial sector. All the same, I can already state that this first report purports to analyse the prerequisites for putting in place a structured and permanent railway industrial sector, and to frame a number of recommendations for the public authorities and the stakeholders, the end-game being to create a genuine, cohesive and efficient industrial sector. These recommendations concern five priority areas, namely: development of a global sector strategy, improvement of cohesion and solidarity within the sector, mobilisation of support for the sector in the international field. Promising avenues have already been identified within the different working groups, the aim being to boost the means of action available to the sector and more importantly to rationalise them. I would add to these the public procedures supportive of « strategic » innovation or of international operations.  The other major source of concern brought to light by some of these recommendations is to ensure more harmonious, better balanced contractual relations within the railway industrial sector, and promote a new form of cooperation between stakeholders. In all events, I hope shortly to be in a position to explain these avenues and recommendations in greater depth, following the next meeting of the strategic committee for the sector once it has decided on the step report.

VR&T.: What is your response to the official offer by Guillaume Pepy to lead the railway industrial sector?

Louis Nègre : Clearly SNCF, a major customer for the railway industrial sector, is a key and essential partner. As such it can act decisively through investment decisions still pending as regards high-speed trains and also of specifications for regional rolling stock. On the freight side, we continue to live in hope…When it comes to the actual leadership of the railway industrial sector, this is first and foremost the business of the manufacturers themselves as far as I am concerned. After all they are the people directly confronted with fierce world competition on increasingly competitive markets. I have full confidence in the prospects opened-up by ongoing work within the strategic committee for the railway industrial sector , and in which SNCF is involved. The government, through the channel of the Industry Ministry, has entrusted me with this mission, which I intend to carry out to the very end. I’ll spare no effort to ensure that this work, conducted in close synergy with  all sector partners and in particular with the major decision-makers,  does lead to the constitution of a genuine, structured and sustainable railway industrial sector in our country.

VR&T : Parallel to the deployment of the strategic committee for the railway industrial sector, we have witnessed a succession of public initiatives focused on the future of the sector : first, the « Bocquet-Paternotte » parliamentary commission of enquiry on the future of this sector launched last January; then the Boston Consulting Group with its report commissioned jointly by the Finance Ministry and the MEEDDM, followed last September by the creation of a “sector group as part of the Special Conference on Railways. Is there not a lot of duplication in all this?

Louis Nègre : There may indeed be some truth in the argument that this proliferation of « public studies » centred on the same theme, namely the competitiveness and future of the railway industrial sector, might be perceived  as a duplication of efforts. The fact nevertheless remains that the public authorities, as a result of the Special Conference on Industry, are now demonstrably more alert to the strategic importance of this sector. I therefore cannot but rejoice at this development, particularly given a planetary, even dramatic economic environment as drastic and dramatic as the current one which, for some, risks jeopardising  the objectives of the Grenelle Environment Summit. As I see it, not only does the rail mode have a great future to look forward to, but more importantly even, the French railway industrial sector boasts a great potential and will soon, I hope, give itself an organisation capable of meeting future challenges .