A long strike followed by an unprecedented health crisis: the SNCF accuses a shortfall of three billion euros in a few months and calls on Saturday the state to the rescue, without excluding job cuts.
“We are about two billion euros in turnover that we miss” because of the epidemic, he said on France Inter, referring to a “violent shock” accumulating with the billion shortfall suffered during the strike against pension reform.
“I fear, however, that our balance sheet, our debt is too large (…). The notion of an aid plan for SNCF does not seem unreasonable to me,” he said, while warning that “the theme (of employment) is on the table “:” if the recovery is slow and if we produce fewer trains than in the past, it will not be abnormal and illogical to adjust the level of employment to the volume of activity . “
Job cuts
Confinement requires, the SNCF must be satisfied with a minimum service and reap almost no more revenue. “These are major shocks of a magnitude that we had never known,” said the head of the public group which had recorded 35.1 billion euros in turnover in 2019.
Fearing that the financial situation of SNCF – which was in the red in 2019 and accumulated a debt of some 35 billion euros in early 2020 – would worsen further, Mr. Farandou appealed to the State shareholder, to words barely veiled. Especially since the SNCF has been a good student in terms of solidarity, argued Mr. Farandou, with its medical TGV (at its expense), its freight transport to transport pharmaceuticals and cereals. “I think that SNCF has demonstrated the essential nature of its services during this crisis for travelers,” he said.
Jobs, “not a taboo subject”
Faced with the crisis, “we will reduce investments (…), tighten operating costs, play on working capital, on the securitization of certain receivables”, detailed Mr. Farandou. But “it is still too early to calibrate the figures exactly”.
The possible job cuts would translate “mainly to the level of hiring,” said a spokesman for the company. While remaining vague until now, the government seemed willing to support the group. “There is (…) a need to rephasize the financial trajectory of the public group,” said Secretary of State for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari on April 23.
“We are going to look at how we can ensure that SNCF keeps its means of investment well”, had previously reassured the Minister for the Ecological Transition Élisabeth Borne.
Few TGV
The deconfinement, set for May 11, is a modest relief for the SNCF, which will have to drastically reduce its capacities to enforce the distancing measures. The company will strive to make “run the maximum number of trains” of daily life (TER, Transiliens), said Mr. Farandou: 50 to 60% from May 11, “75% at the end of the month May and we hope to be 100% early June. “
On the other hand, in line with government directives limiting travel to more than 100 km from one’s home, “few TGVs” will circulate, with one seat in two occupied, “to ensure the resumption of professional mobility between the province and Paris “and make sure that French people can go” to help their parents at the other end of France “.
The CEO of SNCF reiterated his call to extend telework as much as possible, to spread the hours of arrival in companies to avoid saturation. He also asked for government help to “control access to stations.”
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