After the Covid crisis, the SNCF promises TGVs at “affordable prices”

SNCF intends to supply costs “Accessible” in his TGV to win again vacationers misplaced through the coronavirus pandemic, signifies its CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou in an interview with « Figaro » printed this Monday, November 16.

“When the disaster is over, everybody may have buying energy issues. We need to discover giant numbers of vacationers and we should supply them reasonably priced costs ”, affirms Jean-Pierre Farandou, giving hope “Extra readable, easier and extra accessible pricing”. “I’ve had sufficient that we affiliate “Costly TGV” at “SNCF”. It’s not true however the picture is there ”, he sighs.

“Decrease our manufacturing prices”

“To have an accessible value coverage, it’s crucial that we decrease our manufacturing prices”, he explains. “It’s doable thanks, particularly, to predictive upkeep and industrial digitization, which can permit us to make higher use of our trains. “Are the night trains promised by Macron really the future of SNCF?

“On the finish of September the distinction in turnover was 5 billion euros in comparison with the price range. Lack of working margin [équivalent maison du résultat brut d’exploitation, NDLR] was four billion euros “, remembers Jean-Pierre Farandou, who has not but made projections on the results of the re-containment.

“The yr will clearly be very unhealthy”, he sums up. He warned Monday in a message to railway employees that 2021 would even be ” very tough “.

1.5 billion euros in financial savings

General, partial unemployment and budgetary restrictions have saved 1.5 billion euros, “However recruitments had been continued with four,000 individuals on everlasting contracts in 2020. Final yr, we recruited 5,000”, remarks the chief.

Should we come back to the all-TGV policy?

The state got here to the rescue of the SNCF, he welcomes. A recapitalization “Just isn’t, at this stage, on the agenda”, based on him. “The State will determine in 2021 whether or not it desires or can intervene within the capital of the corporate”, he mentioned to “Figaro”.

Anyway, there is no such thing as a query for him to promote 49% of the capital of the logistics subsidiary Geodis, as Laurent Brun, secretary basic of the CGT-Cheminots asserts.

“Geodis is certainly one of SNCF’s strategic belongings, even in occasions of disaster. As well as, the position of Geodis in France and its worth are rising. Promoting this nugget as a short-term response to the disaster would due to this fact not make sense! “