Since the SNCF is a public company, it is financed by the State and the regions, in particular through public subsidies and therefore finally for all the French.
Even before taking the train (and even for those who never use the railway network), taxpayers “pay” for the management of part of the tickets, the maintenance of the network, the purchase of rolling stock, etc…
This contribution is logical, the problem is noticing its regular increase while customers experience more and more chronic failures, especially in TER.
This inflation is confirmed each year by a study of the Fipeco site carried out by the former magistrate of the Court of Auditors François Ecalle.
276 euros per french
By 2021, the total cost reached, according to his calculations, 18.5 billion euros compared to 16.7 billion a year earlier, an increase of 10.8%. If this figure is related to the number of inhabitants, the note amounts to 276 euros per Frenchman compared to 249 a year earlier. In 2015, this amount was 14 billion.
Remember that in this study Fipeco adds the cost of the SNCF and the special social security scheme for railway workers for the State and the Autonomous Communities.
Specifically, through the State and the regional authorities, taxpayers paid 9.4 billion euros to SNCF (+400 million in one year) or 43% of its operating costs. The regions and Ile-de-France Mobilités paid last year 6.8 billion euros to SNCF to operate local rail transport (+100 million).
Finally, the State pays a compensation subsidy to the special pension scheme for railway workers (which is intended to be extinguished when this scheme is no longer applied to new hires) whose budgetary cost is 3,300 million euros.
These high prices, which mainly affect TER, Transilien and Intercités, allow customers to pay for their daily tickets cheaper. In the end, when a Frenchman buys a ticket, he only pays 20% of its real cost. The rest is paid with taxes.
“SNCF is partially financed by households and companies that do not use rail services”
This subsidy rate differs depending on the type of transport: it is therefore almost zero for TGVs.
But as François Ecalle points out, this invoice “it is financed in part by households and businesses that do not use rail services.” “In other words, users directly paid only 57% of the cost of rail services and non-user taxpayers largely financed user transport.”
And despite these contributions, the SNCF and taxpayers still have to bear a huge debt.
“The State assumed a debt of 25 billion on January 1, 2020. Due in particular to the 2020 deficit, the group’s net debt was still 38.1 billion at the end of 2020 and 36.3 billion at the end of 2021. A new debt assumption of 10,000 million took place on January 1, 2022. The resulting interest charge for the State of the debt assumption for 2020 amounts to 700 million”, we can read.
Source: BFM TV
