Whilst France's high speed TGV routes are flag carriers for SNCF, it's conventional inter-city trains have been slowly, but steadily fading from prominence and now a plan has been launched to halt the decline. Future funding options for France's Trains d'Equilibre du Territoire have been set out by Government, which says 'urgent action' is needed if their future is to be secured. There are currently 22 daytime and eight overnight routes which are directly supported by central Government. the new report says the TET network 'no longer meets the transport needs of passengers and localities." Punctuality has declined, running times have increased and there has been little investment in the 30-year old rolling stock. Meanwhile, taxpayer support has reached "unsustainable" levels, soaring by 28% since 2012 to a total of €780m in 2014. These cover both operating losses and track access charges. The report recommends a route by route review to determine whether services should be increased, reduced or scrapped and transferred to road. There is an intention to open up domestic services to competition in 2019. TET services have been increasingly squeezed between high speed TGVs on the one hand and regionally supported services. - NH
- We read it in: Railway Gazette International, July 2015
