France train fares on track for increase; railway tolls in France could go up 80%
March 24, 2008
In France, TGV train fares for consumers could rise sharply due to planned increase of railway tolls.
The TGV, France’s super-fast train, may soon become super-expensive. That’s because the French rail network is looking to increase the tolls on the rail lines as much as 80% by 2015. Since railway tolls already account for around 30% of the cost of a train ticket in France, through the French rail company SNCF, the toll increase could see French train travellers railroaded into paying a lot higher fares as the costs are passed along by SNCF to their customers.
A decision by French government authorities on the toll increase for the year 2010 is expected this July. They have said that they will be “very vigilant” as to the impact on consumers in France when evaluating the toll hike, and a spokesperson said the matter was being studied carefully. However, he also said it was right to expect the SNCF to pull its own weight in paying for improvements and maintenance to the tracks for France’s TGV high-speed bullet trains.Since 1997, rail transport in France has been divided into two entities: RFF, which manages the rail infrastructures and SNCF, which handles the transport of travellers and freight. To use the tracks, the SNCF must now pay tolls like motorists do on a freeway. RFF is also trying to offset the SNCF’s huge debts of around 27 billion euros for rail maintenance that RFF inherited in the reorganization of rail service in France. And RFF justifies its repeated toll hikes, saying it must maintain tracks in France that are sometimes 100 years old.
In singling out TGV rails this time, the company that owns the tracks in France is looking to tap funds from the SNCF’s only profitable operation. SNCF loses money every year on regional transport in France using regular trains and on freight in France.
But besides the cost of maintaining the current TGV tracks, which are in poor repair, there are plans to add 1,243 miles of new TGV rail lines, to fulfil a promise made by President of France Nicolas Sarkozy at the green conference La Grenelle de l’environment held in France in October 2007.
SNCF worries that if it has to raise TGV fares too much to cover the costs of the toll increase, they will fare badly against their competitors, notably air travel. And a spokeswoman in charge of traveller’s affairs for the company lamented that a hike in fares would ruin France’s reputation as having the most affordable high-speed train fares in Europe and thus of making TGV travel accessible to all.
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