En theory, the heavy goods vehicles that criss-cross our roads and motorways are the first competitors of the transport of goods by train. For a long time in France, the rail has lost the battle against the road, so flexible and inexpensive. In France, the CEO of the SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou, has repeated it since his arrival at the head of the company, rail freight only represents 10% of uses.
He has therefore announced his objective of doubling this proportion to bring it to 20% and is therefore asking for a real railway “Marshall plan”, to double the market share of the train, passengers and goods, which he estimates at 100 billion euros. euros. And to show the example of the Swiss and German neighbors, whose network is more recent and rail freight more developed.
In practice, it is another matter. The famous heavy goods vehicles that clutter the left lane of our expressways are the best friends of SNCF and Deutsche Bahn. It is indeed this activity that finances their deficits. If the two players have announced a return to profits for 2021, they owe it to their nuggets, which run on big diesel.
Degraded accounts and network
The French can count on its road transport subsidiary, Geodis, which, in 2021, saw its turnover jump by almost 30% and its profits exceed one billion euros, taking the results of the whole out of the red. of the group. Same thing for the German who escaped losses, thanks to its Schenker branch, one of the world leaders in road logistics. Twice as big as Geodis, with 23 billion euros in turnover in 2021, it recorded a profit of 1.2 billion euros in the first half of 2022 alone.
In other words, the truck finances the train. A form of carbon tax in these times of the fight against global warming, but which is not necessarily sustainable in the long term, for companies crippled with debt and which must invest heavily to upgrade their aging network.
One is prevented from growing by its parent company, while the other only dreams of stealing the money and customers of its subsidiary. In any case, this is the conclusion reached on Thursday, December 15, the supervisory board of Deutche Bahn, which officially asked the management of the company to prepare the sale of Schenker. This could bring him nearly 20 billion euros, which will be used to invest and reduce his debt.
With accounts and a network that are considerably more degraded than that of its German neighbour, the SNCF and its shareholder, the State, which is preparing a new massive investment plan, cannot escape this question. And must provide an answer.