Given the future substantial increase in its energy bill, the SNCF has been warning for several months that it will have no choice but to increase its prices next year.
While the French are strangled by inflation at all levels, the Minister of Transport, Cléments Beaune, asked the SNCF to “work on ticket prices in a tariff shield”.
The Minister thus wished “that the increase in banknotes be in any case less than inflation”. “And above all, protect those who need the train every day, the most modest, the young people who use the Ouigo for example,” he said.
This Wednesday, Olivier Véran, spokesman for the Government, gave some details about the progress of this shield at the end of the Council of Ministers.
“It is out of the question that train tickets increase by 8, 9 or 10%”
“For those who use the train a lot and whose income is modest, that they do not have an increase, that there is no inflation in the price of the train ticket. And for all train consumers, that train tickets increase in proportions less than inflation, at least than the inflation observed by the SNCF in its transport costs”, explained the former minister.
Mid-September, the head of the SNCF Jean-Pierre Farandou had assured that the electricity bill of SNCF Voyageurs should increase between 1,600 and 1,700 million euros in 2023.
“If we were to reflect (this increase) directly in the cost of the ticket, we would have to increase TGV tickets by 10%,” he announced, speaking of a quick “table corner calculation.”
Olivier Véran thus confirmed that “it is impossible for train tickets to increase by 8, 9 or 10%”.
Still, the work is still in progress by SNCF and the government spokesman has not given a timetable.
TER outside the shield?
In addition, this shield cannot be applied to TER lines whose prices are set by the regions. If they have control over the price of tickets and subscriptions, they must pay SNCF part of the energy bill generated by these trains.
The amounts are also currently negotiated between the regions and the SNCF. Regions of France estimates the increases in these bills between “10 and more than 30%”.
“We will not be able to absorb everything. Prices will increase almost everywhere”, warns a regional president quoted by Le Parisien.
In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the regional council has already voted an increase of 8% from next January 1 for occasional customers and 2.8% for subscribers.
Source: BFM TV
