Motorway companies owe “3.8 billion euros to users”

The Transport Regulatory Authority (ART), which Thierry Guimbaud has chaired since December 30, 2023, publishes its third report on the general economy of motorway concessions. Responsible for monitoring the conditions for the opening of transport activities to competition and the evolution of tariffs – including motorway tolls –, it warns of the role of the State a few years before the expiry of the first highway concessions.

Checking their good maintenance, taking inventory of the work to be carried out, ensuring the application of the contract is a “heavy task at a time when state resources are diminishing”warns its president. The latter, former head of the Voies navigables de France, calls for preparation for what comes next: how to finance and manage the motorway network at the end of the concessions and more broadly finance transport infrastructure.

The Transport Regulatory Authority publishes its third report on the economics of motorway concessions. It has a particular tone, because the end of concessions is looming, and you recommend that the State be particularly vigilant in the interpretation of contracts. For what ?

The Macron law of 2015 gave the ART the task of evaluating, at least every five years, in a public report, the economics of motorway concessions. The ART must also take stock every year on the profitability of these concessions and give its opinion on amendments and new contracts. She therefore has a global vision. However, we are at a historic moment: that of the end of concessions. Between 2031 and 2036, the seven main ones will come to an end. The first will be that operated by Sanef in the north-eastern quarter of France.

We must succeed in this unprecedented phase of the end of concessions. This is a first for the State, with high stakes and a risk of controversy. The regulator therefore provides data to inform the debate and defend the rights of the user, the one who pays the tolls. The revenues that highway companies derive are used to cover their investment and operating expenses, the cost of their debt and the remuneration of shareholders. They must, at the end of the contract, return the infrastructure to the State “in good condition”, having made all the investments expected of them. This is where the final balance comes into play. In total, the stakes in the discussions on the end of the concessions exceed 10 billion euros for the State.

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