{"id":222181,"date":"2025-05-23T17:30:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T07:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=62733"},"modified":"2025-05-23T17:30:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T07:30:32","slug":"frances-transport-minister-backs-rail-freight-operators-want-law-not-promises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=222181","title":{"rendered":"France\u2019s transport minister backs rail freight\u2014operators want law, not promises"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>France\u2019s Minister of Transport, Philippe Tabarot, has pledged to support the rail freight sector with increased public funding and hinted at a possible eco-tax on trucks to rebalance competition with road haulage. The French rail industry welcomed the shift but warned that political declarations must now give way to legally binding financial commitments.<\/strong><br \/>\n<span id=\"more-62733\"><\/span>\u201cCertainly, there is an urgent need to guarantee rail freight operators fair market conditions in relation to road haulage,\u201d said Rapha\u00ebl Doutrebente, chairman of the Alliance 4F and head of Europorte, in an interview with RailFreight.com. \u201cNow is not the time to make observations: it\u2019s time to act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He pointed out that road freight currently enjoys free infrastructure access and multiple forms of aid in France, while rail freight pays usage tolls. \u201cIt\u2019s vital to redress the balance of power. This is the purpose of the operating aid dedicated to rail freight, which aims to compensate for these distortions.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Strong decisions\u2019 must follow the political words<\/h2>\n<p>Beyond short-term financial correction, Doutrebente laid out clear expectations for long-term support: \u201cWe are calling for this conference to become a real turning point by immediately confirming the announced investment trajectory, securing the 4 billion euro Ulysse Fret investment programme, and writing it into a Planning Act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He emphasised that the Ulysse programme must target infrastructure modernisation and enable traffic to bypass congested nodes through joint public-private investment. \u201cThis target is achievable if strong decisions are taken. But it\u2019s not enough just to be ambitious. We need to remove the structural obstacles.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"readmore\">\n<div class=\"readmore-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/specials\/2025\/05\/20\/db-cargo-france-ceo-state-of-french-rail-network-is-more-concerning-than-ever\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Alexandre-Gallo-e1733300567326-128x128.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"readmore-thumbnail\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-info\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/specials\/2025\/05\/20\/db-cargo-france-ceo-state-of-french-rail-network-is-more-concerning-than-ever\/\" class=\"readmore-title\">DB Cargo France CEO: \u2018State of French rail network is more concerning than ever\u2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<h2>Freight share target needs more than ambition<\/h2>\n<p>The French government has committed to increasing rail\u2019s share of freight transport from 10% to 18% by 2030. Doutrebente believes the goal is within reach\u2014if the government moves quickly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis presupposes a long-term industrial policy, real visibility for freight operators, and clear commitments on short-term investment,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the right measures are taken quickly, we could see some positive movement in rail\u2019s share of freight transport as early as 2026. The market is demanding carbon-free logistics solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also pointed to the wider public benefits: \u201cWith rail freight, there is less CO\u2082, less congestion and also fewer accidents.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Conference provides platform to push for delivery<\/h2>\n<p>The current platform for these demands is \u2018Ambition France Transports, financing mobility in the future\u2019, a major government-led consultation running until early July. The process brings together national and local officials, industry bodies, civil society and user groups, with one of its four pillars focused on \u2018Financing and Greening of Goods Transport.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRail freight represents a strategic lever for the country\u2019s logistical sovereignty and ecological transition,\u201d said Doutrebente. \u201cIf the various announcements in support of rail freight are quickly translated into concrete measures \u2013 operating aid, path reliability and quality of service \u2013 then the current year should confirm that we are moving in the right direction again.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Sector outlook for 2025 depends on delivery<\/h2>\n<p>Following a lacklustre 2023, France\u2019s rail freight sector rebounded in 2024 with better service quality and stronger customer demand. \u201cThe momentum this has created has continued into 2025,\u201d Doutrebente observed. But he warned that future growth depends on firm and rapid policy delivery. \u201cRecovery will depend heavily on the ability to send clear and lasting signals to the market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>France\u2019s Minister of Transport, Philippe Tabarot, has pledged to support the rail freight sector with increased public funding and hinted at a possible eco-tax on\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11605,72,10626,94,47,9346],"tags":[12634],"class_list":["post-222181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alliance-4f","category-business","category-europorte-france","category-france","category-rail-news","category-ulysse-fret","tag-railfreight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=222181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222182,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222181\/revisions\/222182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=222181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=222181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=222181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}