SNCF ( , French National
Railways) is a French
public
enterprise. Its functions include operation of rail services
for passengers and freight, and maintenance and signalling of rail
infrastructure owned by
Réseau Ferré de France
(RFF). It employs about 180,000 people. The rail network consists
of about 32,000
km of route, of which
1,800 km is
high-speed line and
14,500 km
electrified. About 14,000
trains are operated daily. The chairman of SNCF is
Guillaume Pépy.
Its headquarters is in
the 14th
arrondissement
of Paris
, in the Rue
du Commandant Mouchotte.
Business scope
SNCF
operates almost all of France's railway system, including the
TGV ( , meaning "High-Speed Train"), Paris's Transilien suburban rail network, and some
segments of the RER
( , "Regional Express Network"), another suburban rail system serving Paris.
In the past SNCF also owned the tracks, but this has changed due to
new
European Union regulations. Since
1997 the tracks and other rail infrastructure have belonged to a
separate government establishment,
Réseau Ferré de
France; this change was intended to open the market to
independent train operating companies, although few have yet
appeared. There have been claims that this is mainly due to very
restrictive regulations that are allegedly motivated by
protectionism. For example, the licensing
procedure for the
multi-system
ICE3M took four years, while the same train was allowed onto
tracks in the Netherlands and Belgium within a year of its
introduction.
History
SNCF was formed in 1938 on the
nationalisation of France's five main
railways (
Chemin de Fer in English
means railway, literally, 'path of iron'). These were the:
The French state took 51% ownership of SNCF and has since put large
amounts of public subsidies into the system. In the 1970s, SNCF
began the
TGV high
speed train programme with the intention of creating the
world's fastest railway network.
It came to fruition in 1981, when the
first TGV service, from Paris to Lyon
, was
inaugurated. TGV lines and the TGV technology have since
spread to several other European countries plus South Korea
.
Role during World War II
On 16 May
2006 the SNCF and the French State were
successfully taken to the administrative court for complicity
in crimes against
humanity by the father of MEP Alain Lipietz, because of their role in
transporting members of his family to the Drancy
deportation camp
during World War
II. They were subsequently jointly fined 64,000
euros, but the judgement was appealed. Previous similar
attempts by others in the civil courts had failed. SNCF argued that
they were required to transport
Jews by the
Vichy regime and the
Nazis, and that they had never taken the initiative.
However SNCF chose to transport them in
cattle wagons (stock cars), as it was done
for soldiers, and invoiced the state for
3rd class tickets.
In 2006 the administrative court in
Toulouse
found the
SNCF guilty of aiding in the deportations. The SNCF
appealed, arguing that its actions were consistent with it having
been requisitioned by the occupying German forces under the terms
of the 1940
Armistice, and that employees
of the Deutsche Reichs Bahn oversaw major facilities and
operations.
The SNCF was cleared in 2007 by the Bordeaux
appeal court
which agreed that it had been operating under orders and had not
autonomously made the decisions pertaining to deportation
trains.
Hundreds of SNCF employees (cheminots) were shot for acts of
Resistance during World
War II. Another 2,480 were deported, of whom 1,100 died.
Another 2,361 were killed at work (due to bombings, land mines,
etc).
Modern day
Since the 1990s, SNCF has been selling railway carriages to
regional governments, with the creation of the
Transport Express Régional
brand.
Jacques Chirac, then French
president, pledged in his 2006 New Year Address
that by 2026 no SNCF or
RATP train would be
powered by fossil fuels. This pledge confirms France's commitment
to
nuclear power for its energy needs.
Nuclear power stations already
generate most of the electricity used to power SNCF trains.
SNCF's
TGV has set many
world speed records, the most recent
on
April 3,
2007, when a new version of the TGV dubbed the
V150 with larger wheels than the usual TGV, was
able to cover more ground with each rotation and had a stronger
engine,
broke the world speed record for conventional rail
trains, reaching 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph).
Codeshare with airlines
SNCF
codeshares with Air Austral, Air
France, Air Tahiti Nui, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Continental Airlines, Middle East Airlines, Emirates Airline, Qatar Airways and United Airlines and in exchange, allows
passengers on those flights to book rail service between Paris-Charles
de Gaulle Airport
in Roissy (near Paris) and
Aix-en-Provence, Angers, Avignon, Bordeaux, Le Mans, Lille
, Lyon
Part-Dieu
, Marseilles,
Montpellier, Nantes
, Nimes, Poiters, Rennes
, Tours, and Valence with their airline. The
IATA designator used by airlines in connection with
these journeys is 2C.
Subsidiaries
SNCF has full or partial shares in a large number of companies, the
majority of which are rail or transport related. These include:
- Geodis (100%)
- ERMEWA (49.6%)
- France Wagons (100%)
- SGW : Société de Gérance de Wagons (67.5%)
- CTC : Compagnie des Transports Céréaliers (69.36%)
- SEGI (98.96%)
- Naviland Cargo (94,37 %) previuously CNC, Compagnie Nationale
de Conteneurs.
General freight transport:
- * C-Modalohr Express (51%)
- * Novatrans (38.25%)
- * Districhrono (100%)
- * Ecorail (99.9%)
- * Froidcombi (48.93%)
- * Rouch Intermodal (98.96%)
- * Sefergie (98.96%)
Passenger transport
- * Thalys International
(70%)
- * Eurostar Group Ltd
(62%)
- * Lyria (74 %)
- * Elipsos International
(50%)
- * Artésia (50%)
- * SeaFrance (100 %)
- * Rhealys SA (30%)
Tickets
- * Voyages-sncf.com (50,1%), the
travel agency on line of the SNCF
- * Rail Europe (50%)
- * GLe-trade
Consulting
- * AREP (99.99%)
- * SNCF International
(100%)
- * Inexia
- * Systra (35.87 %): engineering for
public transport
Housing
- * ICF (100%): rental housing (social and
private housing)
See also
References
- " Legal information." SNCF. Retrieved on 26 October
2009.
- A translation of the Judgement of 6 June
2006
-
http://www.communautarisme.net/La-SNCF-n-est-pas-responsable-de-la-deportation-des-Juifs_a776.html
La SNCF n'est pas responsable de la déportation des Juifs
-
http://www.blogdei.com/index.php/2007/03/29/1427-la-condamnation-de-la-sncf-pour-la-deportation-de-juifs-annulee-par-la-cour-administrative-d-appel-de-bordeaux
La condamnation de la SNCF pour la déportation de Juifs annulée par
la cour administrative d'appel de Bordeaux
- The
Times, Friday, January 6, 2006, p54. France will run
trains free from fossil fuel, says Chirac.
External links