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The current CEO of the SNCF, still for a few months, Jean-Pierre Farandou, announces Friday July 4 on Franceinfo, only sales “could finish not far from 25 million tickets sold during the summer“. For millions of French people, this is the start of the summer vacation. The SNCF has planned to roll more than 2,400 trains throughout the weekend, TGV, Ouigo, intercités. It is 1.3 million travelers who are expected in stations. The company also planned to strengthen traffic all summer with 800 main lines in circulation.
Franceinfo: Do you think you are breaking a new record in terms of tickets sold this summer?
For the moment, sales are very, very well gone both in June and for the whole summer. Yes, I think the record of 24 million tickets sold can be broken. We could finish not far from 25 million tickets sold during the summer, so 25 million people transported during this summer. The French want to take the train and we are delighted. It is an effective mode and a practical mode, it is an ecological mode and the French prove it to us. There has never been so much appetite from the French for the train. We are absolutely delighted to help them go on vacation.
Do you fear that heat or bad weather disturbed traffic, as was the case at the start of the week on the Paris-Milan line, especially?
The heat, or more broadly climate change, is actually important and sometimes hit the circulation of trains. In the Maurienne, we know that it is a flood, torrential rains that rushed, a torrent which came out of his bed and which brought a torrent of mud which interrupted rail traffic. This is a first thing. Bad weather, floods, then heat. The heat is first of all a discomfort for our travelers. It is not always very pleasant to travel when it is very hot.
Are the trains air conditioned?
Trains are air -conditioned. Air conditioning sometimes suffers a little because they are given thoroughly to maintain the most pleasant temperature as possible on board. Our staff are also used in trains, in stations or in different sites. Dilation of rails, dilation of catenaries, it all suffers. So we prepare, of course.
But is it more and more important every summer?
Yes of course. The more degrees, the more it lasts in time, the more actually our installations are put to the test. So yes, it is still for us complicated moments and especially since there are a lot of people in trains as we said. But hey, we are there to face, we face, we mobilize to succeed in the departures of the French.
The aircraft is cheaper on average on provincial provincial connections, when a change of train is necessary. And the car is cheaper by 30% on average when you go with the family. These are the results of a comparative study that was published this week by the Association for the Defense of Consumers UFC Que Choisir with the Action Climate Network. Is it normal that the car or the plane is sometimes cheaper than the train?
There are also cases where the train is cheaper in their study. You still have to say it too. There are still cases where the line is cheaper, as for direct trains over reasonable distances compared to the plane in particular and especially in France. Good news because we have a lot of our trips that take place in France on direct relations from the Paris region for example. So, the price of the train is an old debate, the price of the TGV. I do not think we are talking about the price of the TER and the trains of Ile-de-France which is very reasonable. The price of the train, it covers the cost of the train. And producing a train and circulating a train is expensive. There is the toll. You know, it’s like highways.
“We pay a toll to circulate the trains which is very high, it is 40% of the price of the train.”
Jean-Pierre Farandouon franceinfo
So it’s a lot. There are the devices themselves that are very expensive. A new TGV is 35 million euros, so of course it affects the price of the train. There are staff wages and it’s normal to pay the staff correctly. There are taxes, it is not known, but we pay 10% of VAT. When we add all these costs, we arrive at a total cost. It is normal that the TGV, which is a commercial service, there is no subsidy, has the cost of production in its price.
But is it normal that the plane, sometimes, costs less than the train?
It is sometimes, the word is sometimes in the sometimes, if these are some prices on low cost, we know very well that sometimes all costs are not covered. There are the famous taxes on kerosenes, for example, where there are no taxes, while we pay all taxes. Here, we can discuss it. Me what I see is that the trains are filled, well filled. We pay attention to our prices. There are the Ouigo, it’s done for. This is our answer to what you said about families who take their car so that there is a reasonable alternative. I remind you that for a child in a ouigo, it’s 5 euros or 10 euros, it’s not expensive at all. Here, we are very attentive. And we made the strategic decision that there is more ouigo even in our country since we will rise to 30% the number of Ouigo places in the TGV offer.
You have new competitors on high-speed lines with the Spanish Renfe which opened two lines Lyon-Barcelona and Marseille-Madrid and Trenitalia, the Italian, in Paris-Lyon and Paris-Marseille. These two competing companies have lower prices on average than those of the SNCF. How is it possible?
They are free from their commercial policy. I have no comments to make. First, we can adjust. This is what we did between Paris and Lyon. We too are able to adjust our prices if necessary. And in Paris-Lyon, Trenitalia has not lowered the prices much because they also have to pay attention to their results. If they operate trains in France to lose money, I am not sure that their shareholder, the Italian state, is completely satisfied. So Trenitalia will also have to pay attention to the prices charged so that at the end their operation is profitable. So these are the competitors too the problem is that they have no constraints that we have. For example Trenitalia, does not stop in Valence, does not stop at Creusot. We are cities that we serve with our TGV. It costs us money these intermediate judgments, these are regional planning constraints which today are not at all taken care of by competitors. We think that there is a problem of equity, competitive equity and we want with the government, we find the means to make fairly the way in which regional planning missions are carried out with high speed.
The competitors who exploit these lines should be stopped throughout the journey, is that what you recommend?
Yes, for example, it can be a solution that they have constraints of intermediate stops like us. Or it is necessary to pay a kind of regional planning tax to compensate for the fact that they do not have the same public service missions as we have.
One of your battle horses is the funding for the network. You are particularly alarmist on the state of the network, with, in your opinion, a third of the lines which are almost in a state of dilapidation. Isn’t that a little exaggerated?
What I can tell you is that if we cannot find an additional 1 billion euros from 2028 which is added to the 3.5 billion that we have already decided to put in the renewal of the network, we will have problems since it is 4,000 kilometers of line on approximately 28,000 which will be damaged, with breakdowns, delays, incidents, irregularity, in short, all that people do not like or The state of the line will not drive at normal speed. So it’s very important.
“And if we still do nothing in 2032, it is 10,000 kilometers of line which will be penalized, almost 40% of our large national network bequeathed by our elders and that we must absolutely maintain in good condition.”
Jean-Pierre Farandouon franceinfo
So these are lines in particular that are in this state, lines that people borrow Paris-Clermont, Paris-Limoges, finally, are people that people know?
These are important lines, of course, everywhere in France. The structuring network, I do not even speak of small lines, of fine services of the territory. These are important lines which little by little will be threatened, will be damaged, where the quality of service will drop if we cannot find this billion euros additional. I say from 2028, we are not weighing on the 2026 budget.
But is it now that it is decided, in your opinion? There is a financing conference which is ending. It should normally decide how is it rightly financed the renewal and modernization of the network.
Indeed, there is an infrastructure financing conference with an important rail aspect which is in the process of finalizing. I believe that the report of this conference will be returned next week to the Minister of Transport. Yes, it is necessary to decide now, because to organize the circulation of trains and the work in 2028, it was in September 2025 that it will be necessary to decide. So in September 2025, you will have to know whether or not we have this billion euros additional from 2028.
And our network is older than that of one of our European neighbors?
Our French network is in less good condition than our European neighbors. He is 30 years old on average. The German network is 18 years old, the Swiss network 15 years old. But these 30 years on average, it sometimes hides big differences. We have rails that are over 100 years old in eastern France. We have catenaries, you know these wires who drive electricity to feed the engines, especially in the Landes, who are over 70 years old. And when it is very hot, copper is more fragile and it breaks. It creates big incidents where thousands of travelers find themselves blocked for hours. We would not ask better than to change these catenaries. Still, we have to have the money to do it.
