The elected representatives of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region on Thursday approved the attribution of the operation of the Marseille-Nice rail line to the private group Transdev from 2025, ending, for the first time in France , to the SNCF monopoly.
Meeting in a plenary assembly, the elected representatives of the region adopted by an absolute majority the deliberation proposed by the regional executive aimed at allocating the TER Marseille-Toulon-Nice line to Transdev.
“Improved services for users”
“This is a historic step and a first in France”, welcomed during the presentation of this deliberation the president of the region, Renaud Muselier (Les Républicains), who promised thanks to this competition an improvement of services for users with a punctuality rate of “92% in 2025” as well as a cancellation rate of 2%. In 2016, according to the Region, 20% of trains were late and 10% of trains were canceled.
“Traffic doubled”
Still depending on the region, “the traffic will be doubled”, going from seven daily round trips to 14, for “an equivalent cost”. The 10-year concession contract is estimated at 870 million euros.
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As of September 7, the executive had announced this choice which excluded the incumbent public operator. By allocating this TER line, which represents 10% of regional traffic in terms of the number of trains offered, to the private group Transdev (a 66% subsidiary of the Caisse des Dépôts), the Region is the first in France to end the SNCF monopoly. .
A second batch concerning the operation of the “Azur” lines including the links between Les Arcs / Draguignan (Var) and Vintimille (Italy), as well as the Nice-Tende and Cannes – Grasse lines in the Alpes-Maritimes, was also submitted to the vote. The only contender, SNCF, kept this contract estimated at 1.5 billion euros, which represents 23% of regional traffic.
“Too hasty competition”
“These competitions are too hasty”, denounced the National Assembly, which voted against this deliberation, considering in particular that the reinforced security within the TER, promised by the Region, was not effective.
No elected left or environmentalist is present at the Regional Council, the union list of the left competing in the first round of regional elections in June having decided to withdraw between the two rounds, to avoid the potential victory of the RN in the frame of a triangular.
European law requires from December 2023 a competition for rail traffic for all regions.
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