The CEO of SNCF Réseau optimistic after the rail boost

The performance contract signed in 2022 with the State, unanimously deemed insufficient in the rail world, "gave visibility" "but it also reflected the fact that with the (allocated) means the network would continue to age", he said before the Senate's Regional Planning Committee.

The additional budget announced by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on February 24 should make it possible to add 1 billion euros per year by 2027 to the sums devoted to the maintenance of the network to stop its "slow deterioration", and to devote 500 million per year to modernization.

"The program aims to put us back in the race," observed Mr. Chabanel, citing as priorities the rationalization of signal boxes and the modernization of signaling.

His teams will prepare this work, while waiting for the government to specify its program in June, he noted.

"It will take funding that is not based only on rail tolls", the rights of way for trains which are already very high, he added.

Matthieu Chabanel "sees with a good eye" the involvement of the Société du Grand Paris, also announced by Ms. Borne, to help him design the metropolitan RERs, another priority of the government.

“SNCF Réseau already has a lot, a lot, a lot of work” with the modernization works announced, he said.

Regarding relations with its partners, especially local authorities, they "want more trains, but also from us more transparency, more proactivity and more ability to report on what we do, especially on projects", noted the leader, who took office in October.

SNCF delivers 96% of its projects on time, and 20% of them exceed the budget. Which is "far too much", he admitted.

Mr. Chabanel recalled his priorities in the company: to strengthen the links with the territories crossed and their economic actors, to have "a real role of facilitator" in the French railway sector, to return to financial balance with a more rigorous and reduce its impact on the environment.

The "prerequisites" remain the safety of railway operations and "succeeding in the triptych around the recruitment, training and retention" of agents, he added.