Fret SNCF, France’s main rail transport company, will disappear on 1Ahem January 2025 will be reborn in the form of two separate companies, called Hexafret for freight transport and Technis for locomotive maintenance, the company management announced on Monday, November 4.
This is the second stage of the discontinuity plan negotiated by the French State with the European Commission, to avoid a recovery procedure that could have led to the liquidation of the company, which employs 5,000 employees.
At the beginning of 2023, the Commission opened an investigation against the French State, suspected of having paid aid considered illegal to Fret SNCF between 2005 and 2019, for an estimated amount of €5 billion.
The Minister of Transport at the time, Clément Beaune, chose to negotiate a “discontinuity plane” with the European authorities, considering “that there was more risk” start a long-term judicial procedure with the possibility of being forced to reimburse everything and therefore liquidate the company at the end of the process.
“The SNCF fought alongside the State to obtain the most moderate discontinuity possible”The president of Rail Logistics Europe, the holding that brings together all of SNCF’s freight transport activities (SNCF Freight, Captrain, combined transport, etc.), Frédéric Delorme, told AFP.
Five hundred jobs lost
Fret SNCF was therefore forced to abandon 23 of the most profitable freight flows – coming from Belgian, German and French operators – to the competition, that is, 20% of its turnover and 30% of its traffic. This operation was carried out in the first half of 2024.
The second stage, with the disappearance of Fret SNCF in favor of Hexafret and Technis, will take place on 1Ahem next January with the loss of 500 jobs, or 10% of the active population. There will be no layoffs, the SNCF and the government have promised, and all railway workers will be transferred to other companies in the railway group.
A third stage should take place at the end of 2025 and beginning of 2026, with the opening of the capital of Rail Logistics Europe. “but with a red line, that the SNCF group continues to be the majority”insists Frédéric Delorme.
The disappearance of Fret SNCF, a leader in the sector with an annual turnover of 700 million euros and almost half of the market share in France, “It is very hard for railway workers”recognized Delorme, who considers that the conditions are met “develop economically” despite the weakening of the company.
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