In a report published on Tuesday, September 10, the consumer association compiles data on cancelled, rescheduled and delayed trains from last year and criticizes the company for an insufficiently reliable service.
The train is increasingly popular with the French: TER ridership increased by 54% between 2015 and 2023, more than the supply on this network, which only increased by 24% over the same period. But the quality of the service has not kept pace. A study by UFC-Que choisir revealed on Tuesday that the reliability rate of TER, whether punctuality or actual circulation, only reached 80.3% in 2023, two points less than the average for the years 2019-2022. In other words, a daily TER user experiences nearly 10 cancellations or delays per month, an average that also hides significant differences depending on the region.
The consumer protection association has compiled the data – already known – on trains cancelled, “de-scheduled” or delayed by more than five minutes. The difference between the “canceled” and the “de-scheduled” is slight: “If they are cancelled the day before before 4 p.m., they are not considered cancelled, but rather deprogrammed,” specifies UFC-Que choisir, which denounces “a well-kept secret for years” by the SNCF, on which the Transport Regulatory Authority (ART) has since “allowed to shed all light.” However, the number of cancelled trains is significant: while on average 9.6% of TER trains did not run in the 11 regions studied by the consumer association, 7.4 points concern cancellations alone. According to the association, two thirds of missing or late trains are the responsibility of the SNCF, and not faulty infrastructure or weather hazards.
“The data published are not new and include elements already published every year in complete transparency by the ART, a public and independent transport regulatory authority, SNCF Voyageurs reacts on its side. All figures relating to the regularity or cancellations of regional trains are public, region by region and nationally. But the association wants to go further, by imposing “total transparency on TER reliability data”, with full figures and causes of problems available monthly.
The disparities between regions are significant. In 2023, Brittany, Pays-de-la-Loire and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté are among the good performers, since they are the only ones to exceed 84% of reliable trains. On the other side of the spectrum are Occitanie, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, with less than 77% last year. Regarding punctuality alone, the Paca region is also last in the ranking, with only 74.1% of trains running less than five minutes late. Even within the regions, the disparities between each line are even more significant. In Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, for example, the Belfort-Delle line only has 1.3% of disrupted or absent trains, while the line between Dijon and Laroche-Migennes peaks at 17.6% of problem trains.
The State and the regions in the sights
“The conclusions drawn by UFC-Que Choisir are not really the right ones, On the other hand, believes François Delétraz, president of Fnaut, which represents transport users. The real problem with the TER is the historical lack of investment in the network, which has an impact on delays, and the lack of supply. However, on these subjects, it is less the fault of the SNCF, which is targeted in this document, than that of the State, for its lack of resources, and of the regions.” “The SNCF is only the service provider of the latter, so the lack of supply is the responsibility of the regions,” adds François Delétraz, who is also sceptical about a drastic improvement in service that could result from opening up to competition. UFC-Que Choisir, on the other hand, calls for strengthening the “quality of service incentives defined by the region for rail operators, in order to improve the reliability of TERs and make them a credible solution for daily users”, to improve compensation rules.
France is doing less well than its neighbours. In terms of delays, France (11% of trains affected) is lagging behind other European countries such as Austria (4.3%) or Italy (8%). Only Belgium (11.5%) and Sweden (14%) are doing worse. The fact remains that despite the reliability problems highlighted by the association, the French continue to favour TER trains. According to the SNCF, the latter “recorded more than 20% more travelers between 2019 and 2023, and this trend continues in 2024 (+10% traffic this summer compared to summer 2023).” And the railway company ensures: “Over the first eight months of 2024, the quality of service observed is also improving compared to 2023.” Christophe Fanichet, CEO of SNCF Voyageur, commenting on the traffic results this summer, was delighted on Friday with this “train appetite”. But for the appeal to continue, reliability will need to be improved further.
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