Do you feel like your train is running late more often than before? Alas, this is not an illusion. Do you find the stations more and more crowded? You were right again. A study by the Authority for Service Quality in Transport (AQST) concluded that train punctuality in France had deteriorated dramatically for all rail services since 1954, the first year of available data.
Author Alexandre Barbuse explains that the number of people using the mainline trains tripled during this period, while France’s population grew by only 52%. But is this observation enough to explain why train delays in Ile-de-France have multiplied by 10, for main lines by 4 and for regional trains by 2? In fact, other factors contribute to these delays.
Aging network
The first link in the chain of railway irregularities – the aging of the network due to lack of regular maintenance. How to explain it? It is actually a political choice, the consequences of which we are paying today. If it wants to remain a mass transport, the train must remain cheap. However, in France it is a unique case in Europe, the track usage fee corresponds to about 40% of the price of each ticket, compared to 30% in Germany and 15% in Sweden. On a regular line that is not a high-speed line, the rail operator will therefore pay €8.09 per train kilometer in France, €2.77 in Italy and €1.45 in Sweden. Why? Because, unlike national or departmental roads, the French state has transferred to the train passenger the burden that other European states bear.
You should know that without public intervention, the train is only profitable on a few main lines like Paris-Lyon. Unfortunately, this cost-shifting cannot compensate for all investments in network maintenance. Consequently, its aging has a major impact on train delays as incidents increase; corrugations are breaking, the dilapidated condition of the track is forcing trains to slow down in certain sections… Similarly, many stations lacked rail junctions and points. adapted to increase the number of trains in circulation. Finally, the average age of railway lines in France has risen from ten years in 1954 to more than 35 today. “Today we are paying for years of disinvestment.” respect with Rail Life:Alain Sauvan, director of AQST.
More and more trains…
The second very important factor. this network requires three times more than it did in 1954. However, for safety reasons, the interval between trains remains the same and this is important. That is, the characteristic of the train is to slow down slowly. If the car takes 170 meters to stop at a speed of 130 km/h, then the train takes 5 times more distance during emergency braking. At a speed of 140 km/h, it takes almost a kilometer to come to a complete stop. Today, real congestion is experienced at some points on the network, particularly at some railway junctions such as Lyon, Lille, Le Mans, Tours, Avignon or Bordeaux. After all, tripling the number of trains since 1954 has led to “Significant impact on train punctuality in France”, as the author of this report notes. Indeed, all it takes is one small incident on a train for the entire line to suffer irreparable delays.
… and travelers.
Congestion on the lines, but also congestion at the stations. At certain times and on certain days of the main departures, the number of passengers is multiplied. However, most French stations have remained the same as they were in the middle of the last century. It would take a huge amount of work to adapt them, as was the case at Montpellier Saint-Roch or today at Lyon Part-Dieu. We have gone from an average of about 200 passengers per mainline train in 1954 to 450 today. In 1954 there were 28 billion passengers/km. today they are 90 billion, that is, three times more. Passenger traffic on the TGV and Intercités has multiplied by 3.2, and in Ile-de-France it has increased from 2 billion to 14 billion, i.e. multiplied by 7. “As the number of trains increases, more passenger delays threaten to affect punctuality.” clarifies the study: Inconvenience, closed doors due to the flow of travelers, prolonged boarding and disembarking, forgotten luggage…
Locomotive and old cars
In terms of train delays, the aging of the rolling stock should also be taken into account. Locomotives like cars are designed to last for decades. But the aging of the entire fleet suggests that it has been little renewed, despite the region’s infamous push for TER and Transiliens in the 1990s, following a law devolving transport authority to the regions. And as Mr. de La Pallis would do, the AQST report emphasizes that ““Older rolling stock is more likely to have accidents during the journey.” Note that this takes on its full meaning when we know that the average age of electric locomotives, for example, has increased from 8 to 30 years between 1954 and today. And that the average age of a TGV train is currently 20 years.
Less staff
People are needed to drive trains. A lot of staff. And even more, competent staff. Contrary to popular belief, driving a train is more difficult than driving a plane. The railway production chain, from track maintenance to station arrivals, is a machine that uses dozens of skills. Here’s why, and it’s little known, even if it means making environmentalists scream that the cost of production for a 700+ km trip is cheaper by plane than by train. In order to compensate for the phenomenal increase in the state’s fees for the operation of its trains, the SNCF has drastically reduced its staff. The number of railway workers in 1954 was 400,000; they are less than 150,000 today. Abyssal queues at sales counters, if they prove it, are only the tip of the iceberg. Because forced digitization at all levels of the company does not solve everything.
In summary, carrying more and more passengers on more and more trains on an increasingly degraded network, with less and less staff, is unlikely to improve punctuality. Except asking SNCF to perform feats to make the impossible happen.
Source: Le Figaro
