DObviously, it is not easy to get out of “whatever it takes” while remaining in “at the same time”. Eternal story of butter and butter money. In February, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced a major investment plan in French rail: 100 billion euros by 2040.
With a clear objective, to switch as many French people as possible from the car to the train by reducing the mileage market share of the car from 80% currently to less than 70% and thus reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by almost 14%. Greenhouse. A laudable and necessary objective if we want to fight against global warming, since transport is the only area of the economy which has absolutely not reduced its greenhouse gas emissions for thirty years.
But unfortunately, a few months later we see that the State does not have the money for its ambitions. Its idea of taking money from motorway companies, without increasing tolls, is lost in legal battles, while the SNCF does not have the financial means to take on this plan alone, which would theoretically require 7 billion euros of investment. investment per year.
Recipe
Especially since “at the same time”, we are asking the company to lower its prices with a monthly pass at 49 euros and we are worried about the price of gasoline. Resisting for the moment political pressure in favor of a new rebate on pump prices, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, nevertheless asks TotalEnergies to further postpone its price freeze in its stations. At this rate, we are not about to make the French prefer the train.
Moreover, as recently recalled in a column in The world mobility experts Jean Coldefy and Yves Crozet, despite an effort of nearly 120 billion euros in train and urban transport between 1998 and 2018, the share of rail in transport has only increased from 9% to 11%.
However, rail use has increased, but so has car use and plane use has almost doubled! Moreover, the annual study by the Society and Consumption Observatory (ObSoCo) on mobility confirms this attachment of the French to the car. Hence their sensitivity to the price at the pump. The only mode of transportation they claim to want to reduce is flying.
The only successful example of transfer is that of the centers of large cities, notably Paris, where road traffic has been halved. The recipe, a strong alternative offer of public transport, the use of the bicycle and a constraint on the use of the automobile. A significant transfer but which only affects urban residents, often well-off. The users surveyed by ObSoCo confirm that price, availability and travel time are the three key factors that determine the decision to change transport.
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