Train attendance increased by 5% in 2023, compared to 2022, confirming the growing appetite of the French for this means of transport. And this, despite deteriorating punctuality and increasing prices, observes the Transport Authority (ART), in a report published this Wednesday, December 18. LThe number of passengers transported by train reached 108 billion last year in total.
« The train is the only mode of transport to have exceeded its pre-crisis (Covid-19) attendance level in France by 2023 », affirms the ART, specifying that the share of trips made by train is increasing (10.4%), to the detriment of the car and the plane on domestic connections.
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Compared to 2019, attendance on regional trains (TER) even jumped by 21%, while that of TGVs increased by 6%. However, there are fewer trains than five years ago, since the SNCF has shed nearly 40 TGVs in the meantime, even if the current trains offer more seats than the old ones. TGVs are therefore increasingly full, with a record occupancy rate reaching 77% in 2023.
Rising prices
However, the price of high-speed travel continues to increase, particularly low-cost services like Ouigo. Last year, prices increased by 10% for this type of service. The price of the classic TGV increased by 6%. These price increases, combined with better filling of the trains, allowed the SNCF to increase its revenues. which return to their 2019 level ».
« The quality of service of the rail offer has deteriorated again in 2023 », also noted the ART. Not only have there been fewer scheduled trains, but strikes against pension reform and bad weather – which mainly affects TER trains – have caused punctuality to drop.
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« The number of trains that actually ran and arrived on time at their terminus compared to the number of trains planned » thus went from 81% in 2022 to 78% last year. In five years, the supply of high-speed trains has also decreased by 15% due to the scrapping of several trainsets. As a result, according to a survey by the National Federation of Transport User Associations (Fnaut), published in June, 75% declared that this mode of transport “isn’t cheap”.
Freight still in bad shape
HAS The opposite of passenger transport, rail freight experienced a dark year in 2023, with a 17% drop in goods transported. The share of rail in freight transport has therefore deteriorated further, falling below 9%, far from the European average.
According to another ART report, French rail freight has experienced a notable decrease in 44 years, going from 57.7 billion tonne-kilometres in 1984 to 32 billion in 2018. So that the modal share in tonnes/km of rail freight transport deteriorated sharply, going from 46% in 1974, to 30% in 1984, and to just over 9% in 2018. Despite this continued decline, by 2030, theThe State wants rail freight to reach 18% of goods transported in France.
(With AFP)
