If competition on SNCF’s national and TGV lines is still very timid (to put it mildly) in the regions, calls for commercial launches planned between 2024 and 2040 are multiplying.
Charged calls since they generally include the management and operation of the public service but also the conservation and maintenance of rolling stock, the reception and information of passengers, all in a logic of improvement of the service provided.
These calls for competition take place (or have taken place) in most French regions. For SNCF, it is a greater and multiple risk of losing its historical monopoly after decades of solitary domination. Let’s do a check-in.
When? Since 2025
The PACA region is the first to have selected (in 2021) an operator following a tender which will therefore replace SNCF for the first time in the region in 2025.
It was Trandev (the result of the 2011 merger of Transdev and Veolia Transport) who won the bet. The contract is for 10 years and requires Transdev to double the number of daily round trips on the line.
Trandev announces “14 round trips per day and schedules on time in a wider time span, thus providing more quality of service, reliability, regularity and punctuality (97.5% of punctual trains), an aspect expected by commuters,” reads a press release. .
Let us remember that the SNCF offer has been harshly criticized by users for years for its chronic problems and for the region through its president Renaud Muselier (Les Républicains). The latter rushed as soon as possible (in 2019) to organize the first tender in France for the TER after the application of European legislation.
Ile-de-France: the big piece
When? between 2025 and 2040
It is one of the “very big” pieces of the competition opening. Eight lines operated by SNCF Transilien (lines J, L, N and U, R, P, H and K) will be gradually opened to competition over three years, from 2025 to 2028.
As for the RER, the opening will be smooth on the five Ile-de-France lines. Line E will be the first to be affected in 2025. Lines C and D will follow much later in 2039, then lines A and B will end in 2040 (SNCF and RATP cooperation).
Pays de la Loire: 4 candidates positioned
When? From the end of 2024
A year after the launch of its first tender for a third of the region’s network for a period of 10 years, four candidates are still in competition today.
These are SNCF, Transdev, Régionéo (a joint venture resulting from the partnership between RATP Dev and Getlink), MyTrain J’V (a joint venture formed by Edeis, a specialist in delegated management of community infrastructure, and TTH-GTF, a specialist in railway maintenance and operation) and Arriva (a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn) indicates City, Railway and Transport.
The offers (for which we do not yet know the details) will be examined with a view to awarding the concessions in the middle of next year. The goal is to have a commercial release of the newly selected player by the end of 2024.
New Aquitaine: SNCF waiting for something better
When? From 2026/2027
The contract between the region and the SNCF expires on December 31, 2023. It covers 4 lots: the Bordeaux star, Périgord-Limousin and Poitou-Charentes.
“We still have until that date to sign a new agreement with SNCF, which we will probably do in June, and for a period of six to eight years,” explains the vice president of the regional council in charge of transport, Renaud Lagrave. .
But New Aquitaine intends to prepare the ground for the competition by starting the process early next year with a view to implementation in 2026-2027.
Here again, the region attacks the dysfunctions of the public company, highlighting 91 to 92% of punctual trains while attendance has increased by 15% compared to 2019.
Hauts-de-France: go as fast as possible
When? between 2025 and 2028
It is an understatement to say that relations between the region and the SNCF are tense. The first accusing the second of not fulfilling its part of the contract with too many delays and cancellations of trains that poison the lives of users.
In other words, openness to competition is expected as the Messiah.
Last March, the region indicated that it will open all its TER lines to competition within 18 months, expanding an offer that up to now covers half of the network.
“We decided not to waste time given the situation of the TER in the region (…), where traffic and management are bad, we no longer support the monopoly situation of the SCNF”, says Franck Dhersin, mobility manager for the region.
The new tenders refer in particular to high-speed TER lines, a regional characteristic.
Four candidates are competing for the first batch: SNCF, the French transport group Transdev, Régionéo, which brings together RATP Dev and Getlink, and the Spanish company Renfe. It will be granted in 2025.
The other three lots will be awarded in 2026, 2027 and 2028 respectively, for periods of six to nine years.
Grand-Est: a first for the ‘cross-border’
When? Since 2024
In 2024, seven connections representing a total of 525 kilometers from Metz (Moselle), Strasbourg (Lower Rhine) and Mulhouse (Upper Rhine) to the German border cities of Trier, Saarbrücken, Neustadt, Karlsruhe, Offenburg and Müllheim will be treated. for the contest after a call launched at the end of 2021.
With a duration of fifteen years, the market is divided into two batches, one from Metz and the other from Alsace. It constitutes a “first in France for the cross-border”, stressed Jean Rottner, president (LR) of the regional council.
The opening will multiply the offer from two to four depending on the sections, in response to “strong demand”, and “it will even create it” on the Metz-Trèves and Strasbourg-Karlsruhe lines, “which will go from zero trains during the week respectively 8 and 17 round trips per day.
Normandy: a worrying opening
When? from 2030
Five lots will be open to competition and the first will be “L’étoile de Caen”. It represents 14.4% of the theoretical transport offer in Normandy and allows connecting fall in Bayeux, Saint-Lô or Lisieux.
The opening of all lines in the Normandy region should be ready by 2030.
The arrival of different players to so many lots is worrying. For the CFDT trade unionist, “we fired a bullet into the heart of the network. The Caen star is one of the best TERs in France, among the top 3 for punctuality and quality of customer service.”
“When the market is divided into batches, there is no longer any possible synergy, explains Mathieu Vilela, from the CGT. Each operator will have its pool of drivers, there will no longer be mutual help to operate the network”.
Remember that if European legislation imposes competition for regional rail traffic from December 2023, refractory regions may save time by re-signing agreements with SNCF, before December 25, 2023 and for a duration of up to ten years.
SNCF is also in a strong position in the regional batches considered less profitable by the new entrants. And they are many.
In the PACA region, for example, on the “Azur” lines, including the connections between Les Arcs/Draguignan (Var) and Ventimiglia (Italy), as well as the Nice-Tende and Cannes-Grasse lines (Alpes-Maritimes), for Therefore, he was the only one who submitted an application and therefore won the lot.
“The SNCF will be everywhere, assured its general director, Jean-Pierre Farandou. We will fight in each tender”.
Source: BFM TV
