We will necessarily lose some market share in France

To take a TGV in the colors of Air France or Virgin, must still await. Announced with great fanfare for several years, competition in the rail will make the very modest beginnings in France Sunday. It is indeed from this 13décembre that links international rail transport of travellers - with the possibility of cabotage, i.e. to take passengers on the French part of the route - will be officially liberalised. Not however sentencing to lift the head to billboards in railway stations: there is indeed no change as a first step, or combatants.

Approached to compete with the TGV SNCF, Air France, Veolia, Virgin or Deutsche Bahn finally preferred pass their turn at the moment. Only Trenitalia dared to the next step, but the transalpine group is not ready. "They come to complete their records to obtain certificates of security and registration of rolling, that public should them be issued in the spring, if all goes well", explains to EPSF (public establishment of railway safety). At best, Trenitalia will therefore run its trains in summer 2010. And yet, it will not be a revolution: only two return trips (a Paris-Milan via Lyon and Turin, and a Paris-Genoa via Marseille and Ventimiglia) are planned each day.

Such lack of spirited competition can surprise, while the TGV was still figure the year last cow milk for the SNCF, with margins that estimated greater than 20. But the crisis is over there and especially the barriers to entry are concerning the applicants wishing to challenge the public group (see below). The pressure group created by railway companies (Afra, i.e. the French Association of rail) also believes that the French State did nothing to facilitate things, by imposing restrictions on cabotage opportunities. "Railway undertakings will have to prove that no more than 50 of the number of transported travellers or business come from the carts made in France", it regrets to Afra, where found by Veolia Transport, Euro Cargo Rail, Colas Rail or even Trenitalia.

The TGVde the SNCF should therefore be relatively protected for many years. However, the railway company "do not be afraid of the competition", according to its Chairman, Guillaume Pepy. "We are expecting eight years while trying to create our TGV brand preference." "Also we are ready to welcome any new entrant", continues the leader. In its new national operations centre rail - there where everything is regulated France - traffic, offices are left conspicuously empty for new entrants who wish to engage.

This liberalisation, even theoretical, also requires it to rethink its strategy TGV. "We will necessarily lose some market share in France." "To compensate for, we have two solutions: becoming a true actor multimodal to expand our business, but also make the rail as in France", continues Guillaume Pepy. This is the reason for which the SNCF took control of Eurostar, transforming it into railway undertaking in its own right, not a single consortium. In the coming years "Eurostar and Thalys networks should be brought to expand beyond their current Cobweb", says the leader. It is true that high speed has a promising potential in Europe: the TGV network is expected to get 6,000 kilometres today to 15,000 kilometers in 2020.