National company of the railroads French

The National company of the railroads French ( the SNCF ) is one of principal the French state enterprises . She carries on a double activity:

Railway company in charge of the commercial exploitation of services of railway Transport travellers and goods, on the one hand;
Exploitation and maintenance, for the account of RF, of the rail network national French, in addition.

Employing nearly 166.000 people at the beginning of 2007, it exploits approximately 32 000 km of lines, of which 1 850 km of lines at high speed (June 2007) and 14 800 km of electrified lines. It makes circulate on average 14 000 Train S per day. By its volume of activity, it is the second railway company of the European Union after the Deutsche Bahn. Its president is Anne-Marie Idrac and its executive managing director is Guillaume Pépy.

History

See also: History of the SNCF

The SNCF was created the 1 {{er}} January 1938 by the government of Camille Chautemps.

At the time it was a Public limit company of mixed economy, created for one 45 years duration, whose State had 51% of the capital, the 49% remainders belonging to the shareholders of the finance companies having succeeded the six old companies (Compagnie of North, Railway network of Alsace-Lorraine, Compagnie of the railroad the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean, Paris-Orleans (Midday), Compagnie of the East and Réseau of the State). The majority of the members of the personnel profit from a specific scheme of retirement and a statute. The agents of the SNCF are not civils servant. The contractual personnel is affiliated with the general scheme.

The December 30th 1982 between in force the Law of orientation on the inland transports (PARCELLED OUT). The December 31st 1982, the convention of 1937 expires, and the whole of the SNCF returns to the State, which equips it with a new statute at January 1st, 1983. The SNCF then becomes a public corporation related to commercial industrial and (EPIC), and its agents keep their particular status. A schedule of conditions and “plan contracts” multiannual regulate the whole of the relations between the State and the company.

With the beginning of the year 1990 , the European directive 91/440 aims at allowing an opening the competition. It imposes in particular:

the separation of the management of the infrastructure and the exploitation,
distinction of the manager of the infrastructure and the railway companies.

It will be however transposed in the French right only in 1995.

This same year 1995 , an important crisis due primarily to the reform project of the retirements of the railwaymen launched by the Juppe government (but abandoned) results in long a Grève. No plan contract was signed, but the State continues to bring a help corresponding to the services known as of Public service which include:

the preferential rates for the travellers of the Broad outlines (reduction for the large families, the soldiers, etc); they represent in 2006 approximately 80 million euros in the accounts of the SNCF.
exploitation of the services of regional interest FOR THE THIRD TIME via conventions with the area S which became the organizing authorities (AO of these services);
and, for freight, certain services of Transport combined.

1996 sees the arrival of new reforms in legislative matter. They are carried by Anne-Marie Idrac, then Secretary of State to Transport, current President of the SNCF:

creation of new a EPIC charged to manage the infrastructure, which is born on February 13rd, 1997: Rail network of France (from now on owner of the infrastructure and decision maker as regards installation, development and valorization of the network).
experimentation of the regionalization of the regional services travellers: the district council becomes a organizing Autorité of transport and responsabilise as regards town and country planning. This experimentation will be generalized with all the Areas in 2002 by the Minister Jean Claude Gayssot.

Within the framework of this reform, a contract will formalize these new relations: it is the pact of modernization . The State then begins to free of debts the SNCF, to guarantee the assets of the railwaymen and to maintain his financial assistance. It guarantees also the exclusive exploitation of the SNCF on the rail network. The SNCF n the other hand begins to write an industrial project, to be centred on the customer and to rebalance his accounts. In 1997 , the property of the network is transferred to Rail network from France, which also receives the load of the debt related to the infrastructure. The SNCF preserves the mission of exploiting the services of transport and the “commercial” part of the stations, and must discharge with RF a royalty for the use of the ways and the “railway” part of the stations. In addition, although the management of circulation and the maintenance of the network is competences of RF which is the manager of the infrastructure, in practice in fact the SNCF carries out these tasks for the account of RF, within the framework of a convention between the two EPIC.

The purpose of this reform was:

to make more transparent the financial relations between the State shareholder and the railway companies, in order to cleanse them gradually; for this reason, to free of debts the SNCF, and economically to rationalize the investments from now on carried by RF under condition of profitability.
to allow, under nondiscriminatory conditions, the arrival new operating railway (including privately held companies), which were to compete with the SNCF on the same ways.

In practice:

on the first aspect, the reform caused many conflicts between RF and the SNCF (in connection with the stations, of the execution of the services of maintenance, the tariffing of the use of the ways, etc); a multiannual convention last between the two companies in 2007 clarifies these relations for the deputy management of the infrastructure entrusted to the SNCF.
on the second aspect, namely to allow an opening competition, that Ci was opened by the French government only in April 2006, for freight; this later libealisation in France than in the majority of the other European countries leads the SNCF to launch a restructuring plan of its freight activity called " the revolution for the client". the next stage of competition envisaged by the European texts is the 1.1.2010 for the international passenger trains.

Old logos of the SNCF

The first logos of the SNCF , those created in 1937 and 1947 are rather institutional. The interlaced letters of the first logo meant the union of the various railroad companies Frenchwomen. It is the patriotic feeling and the fact that the SNCF is then one of the elements key of the rebuilding which inspired the chart of France in background of the second logo.

The third logo wanted to be less institutional and insisted more on the technological performance, the stability and the power of the company. It is what the thick characters of the logo created in 1972 meant. The letters were in italic and wanted to transmit an idea speed (the world speed records of 331 km/h had been reached by a train of the SNCF in 1955), but also the fact that the SNCF was a company which wanted to go from the front one.

It is Roger Tallon, a famous industrial designer (it in particular drew the Corail train and the Atlantic TGV), which worked out a few years later a new graphic charter in collaboration with the SNCF. For this fourth logo, it used about the same concept as the preceding logo. The lines symbolizing the rails were doubled, thus wanting to mark fluidity.

To conceive the last but one logo, the SNCF had added with the logotype existing a red arrow, always to insist on the fact that the company looked towards the future. It also added there broad band gray, which symbolized the rails and wanted to be a mark of stability and perenniality of the company. The purpose of these light modifications were to fight against the “dissolution” of the basic logo, adapted differently according to the services.

The following logos evolved/moved finally little of the logo created in 1975. It is into 2005 that the SNCF reveals a logo radically different from the 3 last. Conceived by the agency Black Square, the form of the new logo expresses “the determination and the movement”, its color “complicity and the change”. As for the typography chosen, it expresses “the relation and fluidity”. The latter is inspired besides by the logo of TGV.

Sources: Press kit the SNCF on its new identity: , March 15th 2005 and Article of Anne-Laure DEMORY drawn from the newspaper interns the SNCF " Infos".

The Group the SNCF

The SNCF controls more than 650 subsidiary companies present in linked activities at the transport of people or goods, at the Logistique or activities of studies and Ingénierie of transport. The Groupe the SNCF is one of the very first groups of transport in Europe. It comprises several road subsidiary companies.

Internet site of the SNCF, “Voyages-sncf.com”, managed by the subsidiary company of the same name, is the first Trader site French. In 2003, it attracted 36 million Net surfers and recorded 3 million transactions for a turnover of 467 million euros, including 80% for the sale of only of train tickets, the remainder concerning the air one, the hotel trade and the hiring of cars. He is also the important customer for publicity on the Internet in France.

The SNCF will have also been a large telecommunications operator via Télécom Development, then Cegetel. Its participation in this last company was resold in 2005 during the fusion of CEGETEL SAS and Neuf Telecom SA.

Finally the SNCF launched in December 2004 a novel mode of exploitation and marketing of the voyages TGV, IDTGV, subsidiary of private law reinstated within the public group in 2006.

The National company of the railroads French ( the SNCF ) is signatory of the Pacte SME.

Activities of the group

Its activity includes/understands five principal branches:

Travellers France Europe (VFE) (TGV, Coral, Coral Téoz…) ;

the SNCF Proximities (ex Direction of the Public transport) (Transport regional express, Transilien, Coral Intercités);

Freight (Freight the SNCF)

Infrastructure (maintenance and exploitation of the network as well as railway engineering)
Holding (pilot more transverse activities such as SeaFrance, the subsidiary company of social housing SICF, SOCRIF).

Organization

The board of directors is composed of 18 members:

Seven representatives of the State among which the president is selected;
Six employee representatives (of which a framework);
Five members chosen for their competences: representatives of the users and customers, and members of Parliament.

The company includes/understands three levels of management:

the head office located at Paris and whose directing body is the “executive committee” of 13 members:

the President (Anne-Marie Idrac)
the Executive Managing director (Guillaume Pépy)
the Director of Voyages France-Europe (Mireille Faugère)
the Director of the Public transport (Jean-Pierre Farandou)
the Delegate president Infrastructure (Pierre Izard)
the Delegated general director Freight (Olivier Marembaud)
the Director of Human Resources (François Nogué)
the Communications director (Bernard Emsellem)
the Director of the Industrial Operations (Jacques Damas)
the Delegated general director Inheritance-Research-Engineering (Covered Jacques)
the Director of Finances, the Purchases and of the Telecommunication and Information systems (Jean-Pierre Menanteau)
President de Geodis (Pierre Blayau)
the Adviser of the President on the questions of Group the SNCF (Claire Dreyfus-Cloarec)

23 regional managements roughly copied on the administrative areas, except in Paris region where them cutting reflects the old organization of the networks (Paris Saint-Lazare, Paris South-eastern, Paris-Is, Paris-Bank-Left and Paris-North);
the establishments, 280 and specialized by functions:

EIM TGV: industrial plant of maintenance of the TGV
ECT: Commercial establishment Trains
EEX: Establishment of Exploitation (exploitation, sale and reception)
EMM: Establishment of Maintenance of the Material
EEV: Establishment of Exploitation Travellers
EIMM: Industrial plant of Maintenance of the Material
EIV: Industrial plant Equipment
ELOG: Logistic establishment
ELRE: Regional Logistic establishment of the Equipment
EVEN: Establishment Equipment
EEF: Establishment Exploitation Freight
AND: Establishment Traction
EMF: Establishment Multifunction
EMT: Establishment of Maintenance and Traction
I.E.(internal excitation): Industrial plant
EPOC: Establishment of Production and Optimization of Compound. Created in 2003 to design and produce the trains of compound transporting the containers. The current Director (August 2006) is Stephan Derlincourt.

The piloting of the company is organized around eight fields and activities: GL (Broad outlines), FOR THE THIRD TIME, IDF (Ile-de-France), Freight, Material, Traction, Management of infrastructure, Stations.

Economic results of the year 2006

In 2006, the total turnover of the group the SNCF rose to 21,9 billion euros.

The EBB (rough Surplus of exploitation) rose to 2 billion euros.

The Résultat running (including Damping S, provisions of exploitation and financial results) rose to 695 million euros. However this figure results from the contribution of the various activities of the group, from which profitability is rather different:

Passenger transport: + 700 million euros (benefit)
Freight (goods transport) and logistics: - 700 million euros (loss)
Loads of the infrastructure, engineering: - 72 million euros (loss)
Others: + 170 million euros

The debt Net of EPIC the SNCF was established to 5,565 billion euros at December 31st, 2006.

Great questions

Economic equilibrium of the railway system

Group the SNCF is the first road carrier in France and among the leaders in Europe. It is thus very natural to raise the question to determine whether for the group it is more profitable to make circulate trucks and coaches, rather than of the trains.

The equivalent of 10 000 trucks: it is the economy which should generate in Paris the contract signed by Monoprix and the SNCF to supply Parisian stores of the chain by railway. That will also make it possible to save 280 tons per annum CO2 and 19 tons of nitrogen oxides.

The arrival of competition intramodale

The SNCF profited in the past from a double monopoly, on rail-bound transport on the one hand and the passenger transport between French cities on the other hand. Except particular cases envisaged by the law, there did not exist interurban regular connections by coach.

It is however subjected to a sharp intermodal competition:

Road transport and by inland waterway on Freight and into International;
Air transports;
Private cars.

The legal framework for the exercise of a competition intramodale is in place concerning the transport of the goods (freight) in international traffic since March 15th, 2003 and internal traffic since April 1st, 2006. Concretely, the first private goods train circulated in June 2005 for the account of a subsidiary company of the group Connex. Since April 2006, seven new entrants obtained the License from railway company and the certificate of safety enabling them to use the French network: B-cargo liner (SNCB), CFL Cargo liner (CFL/Arcelor), Euro Cargo liner Rail (EWS), Europorte 2 (Eurotunnel), Rail 4Chem (BASF), Veolia Transport (Connex) and Seco-Rail (Colas). On its side the SNCF obtained the certificates of safety enabling him to start to tractor draw its own trains in certain adjoining countries, in particular the Belgium and the Italy.

Concerning the passenger transport, the proposals of the European commission envisage the opening to the competition of the international traffic of travellers, including the coastal traffic (i.e. the service road of middle stations), in 2010 (3rd railway “package”). This opening, always source of social strains, is the subject of negotiations for a possible carryforward. It would be done in theory by free access with the infrastructure, but with the possibility for the States of envisaging public service agreements.

Social relations and conflicts

The October 28th 2004, an agreement qualified of history, on “ the improvement of the social dialog and the prevention of the conflicts with the SNCF ” was signed by seven trade-union organizations (of which the CGT) accounting for on the whole 80% of the voices to the Professional elections of 2004 to the SNCF.

The purpose of this agreement is to replace usual confrontation in the company in search for compromise, by setting up a system similar to that of the social day before which proved reliable with the RATP. One of the objectives of this agreement, shared by the direction and the trade unions is to avoid the introduction of a system of Minimum service in the public services, required by certain political parties. The events of the beginning of the year 2005, marked by two Strike S strongly followed to the national scales in January, seem to show that this device will be long to enter the facts.

A strike of the supervisory staff proceeds on Thursday, October 18, 2007

In 2007, a call to the strike against the reform of the special diets of retirement is launched by the trade unions. The strike which began on Tuesday, November 13 at 8 p.m. and is considered to be unpopular unjustified by French. According to a survey carried out by the Ifop for Subway, 62% of the French estimate that the strike of November 14th against the reform of the special diets is not justified, in the same survey 82% of the French are “favorable” to “the alignment of the special diets of retirement, the RATP, the SNCF, EDF, on the general scheme of paid public office”. November 19th, 2007, the strike had already cost more than 100 € million to the SNCF according to Anne-Marie Idrac, who judges it very detrimental being given dramatic situation freight. The strike with the SNCF costs according to Christine Lagarde between 300 and 400 € million the French economy each day.

Future of Freight

Fret the SNCF has been an activity in difficulty for several years. The traffic represented in 2004 approximately 46 billion ton-kilometers for a market share estimated at 13%. In 2004, it recorded a loss of almost 400 million euros. A plan of recapitalisation, of an amount of 1,5 billion euros over three years, was engaged in 2005 with the agreement of the European commission. The French State is authorized to subsidize the SNCF for this purpose with height of 800 million while the company will finance by itself the balance of 700 million. N the other hand, the conditions posed by the Commission relate on the opening of the market of freight to competition and to the prohibition of any other subsidy during ten years, except if the Fret activity were filialisée.

For the 2006 , the SNCF announced a deficit running of 250 million euros, for a sales turnover of 1,7 billion. It is necessary to add to this figure 650 million exceptional losses which had with provisionnings. The challenge to take up for the years to come is, according to president Anne-Marie IDRAC, to find a level of durable competitiveness in the freight activity, in serious difficulty since the double competition of the road and the private railway conveyers. A new organization with average materials and human dedicated to freight was launched at the beginning of 2007; adaptations of the industrial tools and a social negotiation are announced. The SNCF intends to remain the second conveyer of freight in Europe behind the dB, which extends its presence in all Europe by operations of external growth.

The state of the network

According to one to that ordered in September 2004 by the SNCF and RF, the state of the French rail network would be alarming. The experts in particular raised a trend fall on behalf of the maintenance expenses assigned to the traditional network and an imbalance between the maintenance expenses and the expenditure of renewal, the share of the renewals, which make it possible to reduce the servicing appreciably, being definitely weaker than on other European networks. The load of the handing-over on level of the network is evaluated to 15,3 billion euros over ten years. That represents an important financing need for the manager of the network which will probably result in a pressure increased on the SNCF so much as conveyer (rise of tolls) that deputy manager of the infrastructure (increase in productivity).

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