The region had suspended its payments to SNCF in December, citing malfunctions, delays and train cancellations on the TER network.
The Hauts-de-France region will open all of its TER lines to competition within 18 months, expanding an offer covering half of the network until then, its vice-president in charge of mobility told AFP on Thursday. , Franck Dhersin.
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A deliberation to this effect was adopted on Tuesday in the permanent committee, supported by the right-wing majority alone, “we go there 100%“said Franck Dhersin, confirming information from Courrier Picard. “We decided not to waste time in view of the situation of the TER in the region (…), where traffic and management are bad, we no longer support the monopoly situation of the SCNF“, he noted. The region had suspended its payments to SNCF in December, citing malfunctions, delays and train cancellations on the TER network. She decided to resume them on March 16, taking note of a “improvement“but considering that the SNCF had not done”only half way“.
The new calls for tenders, relating in particular to the high-speed TER lines, a regional particularity, must be launchedin the next 18 months“, specified Franck Dhersin. Four candidates – SNCF, the French transport group Transdev, Régionéo which brings together RATP Dev and Getlink and the Spanish company Renfe – have already applied for the first batch, known as Etoile d’Amiens, which will be awarded in 2025, he detailed. The three other redesigned lots – Paris-Beauvais and the Paris radials, the Etoile de Saint-Pol and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais lines, and the TER-GV will be awarded respectively in 2026, 2027 and 2028, for periods of six to nine years.
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If European law imposes competition for regional rail traffic from December 2023, it is possible for refractory regions to save time by resigning agreements with the SNCF, before December 25, 2023 and for a period of up to at ten, according to Franck Dhersin.