The exorbitant cost of the SNCF for the taxpayer

It’s a sad record that says a lot about all the dysfunctions of the SNCF. In total, the cost of the railway company for the taxpayer, via the subsidies that the State and local authorities pay to it, amounted to no less than 18.5 billion euros in 2021, according to a note from François Ecalle, public finance expert and founder of Fipeco, whose Le Figaro was able to gain exclusive knowledge. “This charge is added to the price paid by users to buy train tickets and is therefore partly financed by households and businesses that do not use rail services.», Specifies the former magistrate of the Court of Auditors.

This addition is higher than in previous years, the first estimate made by François Ecalle in 2015 then quantifying all the public subsidies from which the group benefited at 14 billion euros and 16.7 billion in 2020… Not to mention that, despite this massive aid, the net debt of the SNCF…