Keystone-SDA
Struggling financially, Neuchâtel Public Transport is reorganizing. The company is entering a phase of sanitation and consolidation, after an in-depth analysis of its activity, involving the departure of its general director Pascal Vuilleumier.
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January 15, 2025 – 11:07
(Keystone-ATS) The reorganization comes in a context where public transport companies are facing significant challenges, with increasing operating costs, TransN, Neuchâtel’s public transport company, said on Wednesday. The reflection, also on the strategy, was launched with the main partners and sponsors, in particular the State of Neuchâtel.
The objectives set by the board of directors relate to “rational use of the resources available and the search for an optimal critical size”, specifies the press release. In this context, the supervisory body, chaired by former States Advisor Raphaël Comte, decided to reorganize management.
For twelve years
As a result, the mandate of the current general director Pascal Vuilleumier, in place for 12 years, will end soon, “by agreement between the parties”. Interim management will take over, in order to ensure a “harmonious transition”, under the leadership of Cédric Aubry, current financial director of TransN.
The tasks of the general manager will be distributed among the members of management. As a reminder, the company, based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, is the result of the merger in 2012 of the former companies TRN and TN to create a new entity serving public transport throughout the canton of Neuchâtel.
Many major challenges have been overcome, recalls the company. They consisted of the establishment and professionalization of new management structures, a strategic partnership with the CFF, or even the challenges of the pandemic period between 2020 and 2022, which were managed “with competence and determination”.
Recapitalization in sight
The process of cleaning up TransN’s finances is “going well,” the company describes. The 2025 budget, adopted by the board of directors, provides for a balanced financial result. The 2024 accounts, although not yet definitively established, will also present a balanced result, according to objective.
Beyond that, the work to perpetuate the company will continue “intensively” during 2025, “in good collaboration with its main partners”. TransN is also facing problems linked to the commissioning of new battery-powered trolleybuses in the towns of Neuchâtel and La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Finally, at the end of last September, the State of Neuchâtel announced that it had budgeted an investment of 20 million francs this year to bail out the transport company in poor financial position. A report on the restructuring and recapitalization of the company will be sent to the Grand Council next summer.
