Workers from all branches of the French railway group SNCF are currently on a 37-hour strike and will launch an indefinite one on 11 December to protest the discontinuation of Fret SNCF. All these initiatives are considered as a “bad signal” for the rail freight industry in France, said Solène Garcin-Berson, general delegate of the French rail association AFRA.
Even if the strikes only involve SNCF employees, private operators will be affected as well, Garcin-Berson said in an interview with FranceInfo. This is because “they depend on the infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau”, she highlighted. In other words, if employees from SNCF Réseau strike, trains cannot run, whether they are SNCF convoys or from private companies. This will inevitably lead to an inverse modal shift of goods to the road since shippers mostly look for reliability when organising transport services, Garcin-Berson specified.
‘Fret SNCF discontinuation won’t cause reverse modal shift’
What will not lead to goods moving from rail to road is the discontinuation of Fret SNCF, the bone of contention that is causing these strikes. In the context of this massive restructuring, the company was forced to give up around 20 routes to private competitors, mainly DB Cargo France. These operators “will take back all of this traffic and no goods will return to the road. And that is very good news”, Garcin-Berson pointed out.
Moreover, she added that the path undertaken by Fret SNCF, which will cease to exist at the end of this year to be replaced by two new entities, was the only available option. If the company had to repay the 5.3 billion euros it got via what the European Commission considered illegal state aid, it would go into bankruptcy. On the other hand, the Fret SNCF workforce seems to have different views, as the strikes testify, painting a picture of a not-so-united sector in France.