The revival of this call for tenders comes two years after the failure of opening up to the competition of these lines, in the midst of COVID-19 crisis. Their exploitation “by the new contract holder is planned [e] in 2027”.
Le Monde with AFP
The offer had not found new lessee the last time. The Ministry of Ecological Transition in charge of Transport announced, Friday, September 16, relaunching the competition of the Nantes-Lyon and Nantes-Bordeaux intercity lines, which the State had interrupted at the end of 2020 for lack of competitor to the SNCF, which had the only company to apply.
“Due to the health crisis, the competition procedure for the allocation of the operating contract of these two lines had not been able to go to an end,” he explained in a press release. An interested time, the operators arrived (group Deutsche Bahn), Eurorail and Transdev had notably decided not to present an offer. The government had then mentioned the “economic difficulties encountered by railway actors following the health crisis” and “the lack of a reliable perspective of resumption of traffic”, two factors preventing, according to him, “just and equitable competition”, likely to “guarantee the best service at the user at the best price”.
Start of the new operation of the lines in 2027
For this new competition, “the start of the operation by the new contract holder is scheduled for 2027”, once designated the winner of the call for tenders which will possibly also concern a new Nantes- Lille, said the ministry.
The new version of the tender provides, this time, “that the candidates offer as an option an offer for the development of an affair between Nantes and Lille” which would pass through Angers, Le Mans, Caen , Rouen and Amiens, he added. This new line would be launched or not “depending on the result of the offers received”.
Intercities, officially called “Territory balance trains” (TET), are subsidized by the State, which expressed its intention to develop their network. They must be operated by the SNCF until 2031, but the agreement signed, in March, by the company provides that part of the lines are, by then, gradually open to competition.
Several regions have at the same time have already started opening up to competition from their TERs, organized, as for the intercities, by the 2018 rail law. The Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region has already allocated two “lots “After having made tenders, Paris-Toulon-Nice in Transdev and the” Star of Nice “at the SNCF. Procedures are also underway in the Grand Est regions, Hauts-de-France, Ile-de-France, Pays-de-la-Loire and in Burgundy-France-Comté.