It is since the law of June 2018 for a new railway pact that the regions have been authorized, in accordance with a European directive, to put the TER passenger service into competition, knowing that this competition will be compulsory from 2034. The rails and the stations are not concerned, remaining the prerogative of the SNCF. The regions, however, retained the possibility of signing an operating agreement by mutual agreement with the SNCF, for a maximum period of ten years, provided that the initials were affixed before Christmas 2023. This is what the Nouvelle did -Aquitaine with an agreement which runs from 2024 to 2030.
This did not prevent the executive of Alain Rousset – to which the communists, hostile to competition, belong – from launching a call for tenders for the former Poitou-Charentes. A call for tenders to which the SNCF responded, where the unions are also more than resistant to the procedure. “Each time a lot is opened, the SNCF will be a candidate and will do its utmost to win,” recalled the new regional director of the railway company, Bertrand Gosselin, in the columns of “Sud Ouest” in October. The winner of this call for tenders will be known in mid-2026 and will be appointed for a period of ten years, from 2027 to 2037.
Only two private lines
The exploitation of TERs may seem interesting on paper. In 2023, they transported 378.1 million passengers on the 434 rail lines in service. And, in the first half of 2024, TER ridership increased in France by 10.5%, and by 11% for the Transiliens of Île-de-France.
Until today, only four regions (chaired by the right) have launched into opening up to competition, the fastest being the South Region (formerly Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur) from February 2020 , followed by the Grand-Est, Hauts-de-France and Pays de la Loire. Only two lines have been allocated to SNCF’s main competitor, Transdev, with the Marseille-Toulon-Nice line from mid-2025, and the Nancy-Vittel-Contrexéville line from the end of 2027.
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