In the next 18 months, the Hauts-de-France region will open up all of its TER lines to competition. This will make it possible to expand an offer covering until then half of the network, its vice-president in charge of mobility, Franck Dhersin, told AFP on Thursday March 24. In the standing committee, a deliberation to this effect was adopted on Tuesday, supported by the only right-wing majority, “we go there 100%”, said Franck Dhersin. “We have decided not to waste time given the situation of the TER in the region, where traffic and management are bad, we no longer support the monopoly situation of the SCNF”he noted to AFP.
Four candidates already for the Etoile d’Amiens lot
In December, the region had suspended its payments to the SNCF, denouncing at the same time malfunctions, delays and cancellations of trains on the TER network. She decided to resume them on March 16, taking note of a “improvement“but considering that the SNCF had not done”only half way“. The new calls for tenders, relating in particular to the high-speed TER lines, a regional particularity, must be launched “in the next 18 months“, clarified Mr. Dhersin.
Four candidates SNCF, the French transport group Transdev, Régionéo which brings together RATP Dev and Getlink and the Spanish company Renfe have already applied for the first lot, known as Etoile d’Amiens, which will be awarded in 2025. three other redesigned lots – Paris-Beauvais and the Parisian radials, the Etoile de Saint-Pol and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais lines, and the TER-GV will be awarded respectively in 2026, 2027 and 2028, for periods of six to nine years. If European law imposes competition for regional rail traffic From December 2023, it is possible for refractory regions to save time by resigning agreements with the SNCF, before December 25, 2023 and for a period of up to ten years, according to Mr. Dhersin.