Catherine Vautrin confirms that there will be no moratorium on dismantling

There will be no moratorium on the dismantling of the SNCF freight branch, despite strike threats, Catherine Vautrin, the Minister of Partnership with the Territories, confirmed on Wednesday. The minister, responding to the communist deputy Nicolas Sansu who asked for a moratorium, stressed to the National Assembly that the transformation of rail freight obeyed “a European obligation”. “The liberalization of the sector has been to the detriment of the modal share” of the train in the transport of goods, according to Mr. Sansu. “The path taken is madness (…). It’s a crime against the environment.”underlined the member for Cher. The subject is “follow up” by the government and will be “evoked” with the new European commissioners, replied Catherine Vautrin, whose responsibilities include Transport. The government is “determined to make rail freight a pillar of the decarbonization of the transport sector”underlined the minister, ensuring that“no layoffs will take place in this project”and that “all feeds” of goods will be “kept on the rail”.

Leader in rail freight transport in France, Fret SNCF will disappear on January 1 to be reborn in the form of two separate companies: Hexafret for freight transport, and Technis for locomotive maintenance. This is the culmination of a plan negotiated between the European Commission and the French State, suspected of having paid aid to Fret SNCF in violation of competition rules. There were two options: either negotiate a “discontinuity plane” causing the Fret SNCF entity to disappear and avoiding prosecution; or take the risk of going to litigation and losing, with the obligation to repay 5 billion euros, which would have led to the liquidation of the company which employs 5,000 employees. The SNCF union organizations are calling for a moratorium on this dismantling, and are calling for a strike from Wednesday, November 20, 7:00 p.m. to Friday, November 22, 8:00 a.m., but also for a renewable strike from Wednesday, December 11. Catherine Vautrin assured Wednesday that the Minister for Transport was “listening” of the European Commission but also of “the SNCF and its social partners”.