French government appoints panel to address struggling intercity rail services

Listen to this article

French Secretary of State for Transport Alain Vidal has put together a committee tasked with turning around the fortunes of the country’s ailing intercity rail service.

The panel will report back to the government within six months with ideas on how to improve the service provided by France’s Territorial Equilibrium Trains (TET), which are currently run at a loss.

By the end of 2014, SNCF will have spent €309 million on the intercity TET service, of which only 6 per cent (€19 million) is subsidised by the government.

Since 2010, SNCF and the French government have looked at how they can draw more passengers onto the country’s 40 conventional intercity rail routes. This included the replacement of old rolling stock and in 2013, SNCF placed a €350 million order for 34 new bimodal Coradia Liner trains with Alstom.

The committee will include state officials, regional contacts and industry experts. Vidal said the group will report back within the next six months with a view to implementing their recommendations in early 2016.

3 COMMENTS

  1. There is a strange rumour doing the rounds that the French Government are going to ask Richard Branson to come on to this committee and Virgin Trains will be awarded a contract to operate some intercity services. Oh sorry, I just remembered that was just a dream I had the other night.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest Rail News

Andrew Haines looks back on five years of CP6

As Control Period 6 (CP6) comes to a close on 31 March, Network Rail is taking a look back...

More like this...