{"id":163470,"date":"2025-01-02T20:14:54","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T10:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=58803"},"modified":"2025-01-02T20:14:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T10:14:54","slug":"a-new-rail-freight-era-begins-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=163470","title":{"rendered":"A new rail freight era begins in France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fret SNCF, the French state-owned rail freight company, is officially a thing of the past. Two freshly established entities, Hexafret and Technis, respectively taking over operations and maintenance tasks, are now the new face of rail freight at SNCF.<\/strong>
\n<\/span>The transition from Fret SNCF to Hexafret and Technis has not been without challenges, with many opposing voices and hundreds of jobs being cut. It all started with an investigation led by the European Commission (EC) into possible illegal state aid. The EC found that, between 2007 and 2019, the operator saw over 5 billion euros of debts being cancelled, which was deemed as market distortion.<\/p>\n

To avoid heavy sanctions, the French government decided to implement a massive restructuring. This meant giving up combined transport services, which amounted to 20 per cent of the company\u2019s traffic, and laying off around 500 workers. Many of these services were distributed among private operators, mostly DB Cargo France. Other connections, such as the one supplying the Rungis International Market in Paris, were discontinued and have yet to be reactivated.<\/p>\n