SNCF President Jean-Pierre Farandou asked on Wednesday for a financing plan with permanent resources and "
a multi-annual programming law
" in order to guarantee the implementation of the 100 billion euro plan promised for the railway.
"
If it is not funded, this project will not happen
," warned Jean-Pierre Farandou, during a hearing before the Finance Committee of the National Assembly.
The project, announced at the end of February by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, promises 100 billion euros of investment for the railways by 2040, an effort that the president of the SNCF has been defending for many months.
It is necessary to call
upon “all accessible sources of financing
”, he underlined.
Jean-Pierre Farandou thus cited the “
new European taxation around carbon quotas
” but also taxes, which could weigh on the types of transport which have a “
more negative impact on the environment
”.
"
I'm thinking of air transport, I'm thinking of heavy goods vehicles and we also have motorways which are an important source of funding
", suggested the president of the rail group.
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Network regeneration and modernization
According to him, “
part of the motorway manna could be used to finance the railway
”.
Local authorities must also be called upon to finance regional express service projects, the famous "
metropolitan RERs
" that Emmanuel Macron has called for with "
regional trains running every quarter of an hour
" to "
irrigate
" large metropolises, according to Jean-Pierre Farandou.
The SNCF will also take its share "
up to its real but limited contributory capacity
" and with a "
red line: not to return to the deficit
", insisted Jean-Pierre Farandou.
The boss of the public group finally said he hoped "
that a broad cross-party consensus could create the necessary conditions for a multi-year programming law
" in order to consolidate "
the implementation of this future plan for rail transport in our country
".
This provides in particular for the regeneration and modernization of the network, the average age of which is 30 years in France, "
whereas in Germany it is 17 years and in Switzerland, which is a European reference in terms of rail, it is 15 years
.
The annual investment must thus increase from 2.8 billion euros, an amount considered insufficient, to nearly 4 billion euros per year, which would make it possible to "
maintain the entire network in good condition
", insisted Jean -Pierre Farandou.
