Brussels, 25/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - French railway reform is gradually taking shape and its outline may not at all comply with the wishes of the European Commission, which promotes a model for governance that separates infrastructure managers from service operators (as reaffirmed in the proposal contained in the fourth railway package). The report submitted this week to the French prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, by the former minister for transport, Jean-Louis Bianco, advocates that this model is not followed in the reform announced for the French railways and that, on the contrary, they set up a, “public railway axis”. Bianco writes that this would basically consist of bringing together the different activities of the French railway provider (SNCF) with those of the network and development operator (RFF) under a single infrastructure manager (GIU). The report justifies this because, for around fifteen years or so, “artificial separation between the RFF and the two SNCF services (SNCF Infra and the Direction des circulations ferroviaires) has led to a lack of transparency, and increased bureaucracy and red tape and, above all, due to these dysfunctions, an unacceptable waste of human resources”.
Will this development be compatible with European legislation in force and that being prepared? EPP MEP Michel Dantin thinks that this is certainly not something they can be sure about and he is already claiming that, “the new railway reform as sought by the French government is effectively flying in the face of European legislation, despite the fact that the new railway package currently being debated at the European Parliament will certainly produce even stricter regulation on the separation of infrastructure managers and the railway company provider”. (MD/transl.fl)