After two months of procedures, the Council of State approved the appeals filed by eight French regions in January against SNCF Réseaux.
In these, the regions Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Centre-Val de Loire, Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France, Occitanie, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Grand Est attacked the tricolor company on the price increase in TER (regional express trains) rail toll rates from 2024 to 2026.
For example, the Aquitaine region had estimated through its lawyer Aurélien Burel to the media l'Informed in January that the increase would reach "5.3% in 2024, or an additional cost of 11 million euros".
The company, for its part, estimated at the start of the year that the increase in tolls would reach 8% on average for the year 2024. A figure that it justifies in relation to inflation.
An increase in these toll rates which would have been passed on to users.
The eight French regions finally won their case before the highest French administrative court.
“The Council of State judges today that the company SNCF Réseau did not respect the procedure provided for determining the fees owed by the regions to operate regional express trains (TER)” judged the instance in a press release made public on March 5.
The Council of State adds: “these transport organizing authorities were not able to express an informed opinion in advance due to lack of information and, on the other hand, that the timetable chosen did not allow that their observations are effectively taken into consideration.
The Council of State therefore decided “to cancel the pricing of the reference document of the national rail network for 2024”.
However, the body leaves SNCF Réseaux seven months to “adopt new pricing” with the aim of “not seriously damaging the financial balance of SNCF Réseau”.
The company which had inherited part of the SNCF debt in 2015 when it was created hoped to finally achieve financial balance in 2024. A decision by the Council of State which could prevent the company from seeing its accounts fall into the green.