Groupe SNCF reported a “resilient” performance in rail freight in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year, despite the downturn in industrial activity in Western Europe, while there was an uptick in profitability.
Revenue at Rail Logistics Europe (RLE), which groups all of the French state-owned railways’ activities in the sector, was essentially unchanged at 912 million euros (-0.2%), but EBITDA increased to 110 million euros versus 91 million euros a year earlier.
This produced an improvement in margin from 9.9% in H1 2025 to 12.0%, “the result of restructuring efforts and sector-specific public subsidies for decarbonising freight transport,“ SNCF said.
‘Robust’ operating model
The performance reflected “the robustness of its model, which is based on a rigorous commercial strategy, good geographical and service diversification, and control of its logistics flows, “ it added.
H1 2025 was marked by the launch on 1 January of two new businesses borne out of the discontinuity of Fret SNCF: Hexafret (rail freight) and Technis (locomotive maintenance) which “began operating successfully, despite a sharp drop in demand and the transfer of train services and dedicated resources to third-party operators“ – following the structural separation procedure imposed by the European Commission.
There were also major contract wins for RLE with French oil & gas giant TotalEnergies and Tricon Energy, in the Netherlands.
Buoyant activity from subsidiaries
As for the performance of RLE’s subsidiaries, rolling highway operator VIIA increased its activity by more than 14%, driven by strong volumes on its main Bettembourg-Le Boulou Lorry Rail service, which stretches from Luxembourg to the French-Spanish border.
Forwarding arm Forwardis posted a buoyant first half-year reflecting momentum in the liquid petroleum and agro-food products segments, while Combicargo also posted volume growth despite an unfavourable market environment for maritime container transport.
The first half of the year also saw RLE begin a scheduled high-speed rail service dedicated to Amazon, which travels 470 kilometres in just two hours between Paris and Lyon and is expected to transport half a million packages annually.
The reopening of the France-Italy rail line at the end of March, following its closure in August 2023 due to a major landslide in the Maurienne Valley, was also a positive development. However, on the downside, the Alpine Rail Motorway (AFA) has not yet re-entered service.
Global results and outlook
SNCF’s group’s H1 revenue totalled 21.5 billion euros (+0.6%), driven by growth in passenger rail transport. Profitability improved significantly with an EBITDA of 3.6 billion euros, up 500 million euros compared to the first half of 2024. All of the group’s activities improved or maintained their profitability “despite a challenging economic environment.“
Commenting on the outlook for the group as a whole, during the second half of 2025, SNCF said it would “continue efforts to cope with a tense economic situation and pay particular attention to macroeconomic developments.“