Fret SNCF will stay heavily in the red
French rail freight arm wont break-even until 2013
SNCF Geodis chief Pierre Blayau has warned that he expects the rail freight division, Fret SNCF, to remain heavily in the red this year.
He said: “The reform measures [set out in a €1 billion {US$1.2bn) rescue plan for the division unveiled last year] have yet to impact on our structural costs, and our economic performance continues to lag behind our commercial performance.
“We were also hit hard by strikes in April and June.”
As a result of industrial action on 24 June, Fret SNCF had only been able to maintain 7% of its freight train schedules, Blayau revealed.
He said: “In view of these factors, our operating losses in the current year are likely to be significant and down slightly on 2009 [over €500 million].
“Attaining a break-even position in 2013 continues to be my objective.”
However, Blayau forecasts Fret SNCF’s traffic to exceed 40 billion-tonne-km in 2010, which would represent a sharp increase on last year and a return to the pre-crisis volumes of 2007.
Quizzed on whether the re-organisation of Fret SNCF’s business, through the creation of privately-run subsidiaries, was still on the agenda, he replied: “Today, this is not my priority. What is more much important is re-drawing our offering in the single-wagon segment, reducing structural costs, developing innovative products such as ‘rail motorways’ and high-speed (TGV) freight trains, re-launching combined transport and long trains and setting up short rail freight service operators.”
In a veiled reference to the difficulty of obtaining good quality slots for freight trains, he added: “It’s not in our interest to be opening a debate on transforming divisions into subsidiaries, but one on the availability of (rail) infrastructure – something which doesn’t depend us – would be most welcome.”
Earlier this month, Blayau hit out at what he described as the “shocking attitude” of French shipper groups that claimed their logistics provision will be severely impacted by Fret SNCF’s drastic cutback in its single-wagon services and increased rates.
He said: “What this amounts to, in essence, is that we subsidise the logistics costs of big firms. It’s totally unacceptable.”
He said: “The reform measures [set out in a €1 billion {US$1.2bn) rescue plan for the division unveiled last year] have yet to impact on our structural costs, and our economic performance continues to lag behind our commercial performance.
“We were also hit hard by strikes in April and June.”
As a result of industrial action on 24 June, Fret SNCF had only been able to maintain 7% of its freight train schedules, Blayau revealed.
He said: “In view of these factors, our operating losses in the current year are likely to be significant and down slightly on 2009 [over €500 million].
“Attaining a break-even position in 2013 continues to be my objective.”
However, Blayau forecasts Fret SNCF’s traffic to exceed 40 billion-tonne-km in 2010, which would represent a sharp increase on last year and a return to the pre-crisis volumes of 2007.
Quizzed on whether the re-organisation of Fret SNCF’s business, through the creation of privately-run subsidiaries, was still on the agenda, he replied: “Today, this is not my priority. What is more much important is re-drawing our offering in the single-wagon segment, reducing structural costs, developing innovative products such as ‘rail motorways’ and high-speed (TGV) freight trains, re-launching combined transport and long trains and setting up short rail freight service operators.”
In a veiled reference to the difficulty of obtaining good quality slots for freight trains, he added: “It’s not in our interest to be opening a debate on transforming divisions into subsidiaries, but one on the availability of (rail) infrastructure – something which doesn’t depend us – would be most welcome.”
Earlier this month, Blayau hit out at what he described as the “shocking attitude” of French shipper groups that claimed their logistics provision will be severely impacted by Fret SNCF’s drastic cutback in its single-wagon services and increased rates.
He said: “What this amounts to, in essence, is that we subsidise the logistics costs of big firms. It’s totally unacceptable.”
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