This is a first for cross-border lines. Friday, December 17, the Grand-Est region announced that it was opening up rail lines to Germany to competition from the SNCF.
The market, which includes the take-over of SNCF staff, will be open to “Any operator, French, German or other”, said David Valence, vice-president of transport, during a press briefing.
Operation from December 2024
In detail, the regional council voted to initiate the procedure for the operation of seven links representing a total of 525 kilometers from Metz (Moselle), Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) and Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) to the German border towns of Trier, Saarbrücken, Neustadt, Karlsruhe, Offenburg and Müllheim, located in the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Saar and Baden-Württemberg.
It plans to start operation on December 8, 2024, after the call for competition that it will publish at the end of this month jointly with the three Länder, with a view to designating the winners in mid-2023. The fifteen-year contract is divided into two lots, one from Metz and one from Alsace, for an operating volume estimated at 6.4 million train-kilometers per year, of which the two third in French territory.
Response to “strong demand”
According to the executive of the region, these lines represent a development potential that is currently underutilized by the SNCF. According to Mr. Valence and Evelyne Isinger, regional advisor in charge of cross-border mobility, the opening will multiply the offer by two to four depending on the sections, in response to a ” strong demand “, and she “Will even create it” on the Metz-Trèves and Strasbourg-Karlsruhe lines, “Which will go from zero trains during the week to eight and seventeen round trips per day respectively”.
The Grand-Est forms a basin of approximately 12 million inhabitants and 45,000 border workers with the territories of the three Länder which border it.
The question of the technical compatibility of rolling stock is “Settled in advance”, underlined Jean Rottner, president Les Républicains of the regional council, thanks to the order by the region for 375 million euros of thirty Alstom trains which can circulate indifferently on the two French and German networks. According to Mr. Rottner, investments to modernize infrastructure will be essential. This point is not part of the market, but a 2020 agreement between the French state and the Grand-Est region sets the principles, said Valence.
The Grand-Est had already opened up lines within its territory to competition, between Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle) and Contrexéville (Vosges) and between Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), Saint-Dié-des-Vosges and Epinal ( Vosges). The results of the procedure, still ongoing, are not yet known.