Lthe news, certainly, should somewhat relieve the main officials of the SNCF. In the next few days, have learned The echoes, the State will cancel ten billion euros of debts to the SNCF, in order to lighten its finances a little, redder than ever. The thing constitutes the second and final part of an action plan initiated by the State in 2018: at the time, on the sidelines of complicated negotiations around rail reform, Bercy had undertaken to close its eyes to a debt of 35 billion euros committing the public company.
In January 2020, 25 billion euros of this debt had therefore already disappeared, with the agreement of the European Union. The remaining 10 billion will disappear “in the coming days”, assured Bercy. A real relief for the SNCF. Just recently again, recall The echoes, Jean-Pierre Farandou, CEO of the railway company, had confided “to be obliged to borrow on the financial markets to pay the wages of December”.
READ ALSOSNCF: “The ghost of Bercy constantly prowls around this reform”
Covid obliges
Jean-Pierre Farandou is not yet out of the woods, however. In recent years, SNCF’s debt has started to rise again, the fault of the historic strikes of 2019-2020, then especially the Covid-19 and the massive use of teleworking. Before all this, in 2019, the total debt already reached 60 billion. Since then, it has further increased by three billion but, thanks to public generosity, has reached “only” 38.4 billion, and should therefore soon drop to 28 billion. A bailout which, moreover, will allow SNCF to save 1.5 billion euros in financial costs per year! A nice public gift, therefore, to start the year 2022.
READ ALSOSNCF: a crisis that is set to last