With TGVs and trains stationary or almost empty, the coronavirus crisis will cause SNCF to lose nearly 4 billion euros in turnover. "The TGV alone represents half", specifies Jean-Pierre Farandou, the CEO of SNCF in the JDD.
During the confinement period, “only 7% of TGVs traveled and they transported only 1% of regular customers. We also recorded significant shortfalls on the trains of daily life. Only freight has held up rather well, with an activity rate of over 60%, ”he added.
With the strikes of December against the pension reform, the losses amount to almost 5 billion euros.
Even if the holidays are looming on the horizon to accelerate the recovery, the restart of activity after deconfinement remains limited for the moment. “Some trains are full in June. For July, we record an average of 20% of reservations and for August around 8%, "he specifies, estimating that we" remain very far from the speed of the restart observed after a strike. "
No layoffs
Faced with this situation, the boss of the SNCF is still optimistic. He again dismissed the possibility of layoffs: "on the contrary, we will continue to recruit this year and next year," he said.
After having raised two funds of 1.2 billion euros in Europe and the United States, Jean-Pierre Farandou underlined that the "savings plan which represents several hundreds of millions of euros" relates essentially to the equipment purchases and operating costs.
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Asked about a possible financial gesture from the State, to allow the implementation of a revival plan for the railroad, the CEO of the SNCF simply stresses that he has on this file "regular exchanges with the State." "
Hydrogen trains
In the meantime, Jean-Pierre Farandou has outlined a few tracks on the company's objective of achieving “zero emissions in 2035”. "All trains running on diesel on the network that is not electrified" should be replaced by 2030 by trains running on hydrogen. “With the regions, we will put the first prototypes into service in 2023. In the meantime, we are developing hybrid trains with Alstom which will arrive in 2021 in 4 regions. They run on diesel on the main route but switch to electric when entering the cities. They therefore make less noise and pollute less, ”he adds.
