A TER train at Montparnasse station, in January 2020 in Paris (AFP / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN)
French regions will be forced to “close the railway lines” if the state passes on the soaring electricity prices to them, warned the president of the Grand Est Regional Council, Jean Rottner (LR).
“From 2024, an additional 8% toll will be applied to the regions,” said Rottner in an interview with journalists, before a Thursday session of the Regional Council in Strasbourg. “There, we say stop, we can’t”.
Transport Minister Clément Beaune indicated last month that the State was not considering a priori aid for the regions, which are contracted to cover the increase in energy prices for the public transport they organize, like the TER.
“Many regional presidents are saying that if at some point there is not some form of questioning of the system (…), we are going to our loss, that is to say that we are going to close the lines, clearly”, noted Mr. Rottner.
SNCF President Jean-Pierre Farandou estimated last month the additional cost of the electricity bill between 1.6 and 1.7 billion euros in 2023.
Half of this additional cost is attributable to regional trains.
The President of the Grand Est Regional Council, Jean Rottner, on April 12, 2022 in Mulhouse (AFP / Ludovic MARIN)
However, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, when she was Minister of Transport, demanded in 2018 that SNCF Réseau, the manager of French railways, return to positive cash generation from 2024.
Mr. Rottner also indicated that his region was going to “start paying again” what it owed to the SCNF, after announcing last April a suspension of payments for the operation of the TER network. The regional president then denounced “dysfunctions” in the service.
“There are a number of improvements that have been made” since then, he said.