Delays, cancellations… The quality of TER service remains “degraded”, according to the Court of Auditors

TERs offer quality of service “degraded”, estimates the Court of Auditors in a report published on Friday September 20. “Both the proportion of cancelled or rescheduled trains and punctuality are at worrying levels”deplore its authors, who are taking stock of the opening up of these regional lines to competition after an initial report in 2019.

Scheduled trains failed to arrive at the station one in ten times in 2019 and one in twenty times in 2023. And the number of trains delayed by more than five minutes increased in 2023, reaching 11.2%. According to the Court of Auditors, these difficulties “expose travellers to excessive risks and constitute an obstacle to the development of attendance” of these local lines.

The Court of Auditors had also asked the regions, which contribute half of the TER budget (10.9 billion euros in 2023), to review the contribution of passengers: they contribute less to the cost of transport than in border countries. But most regions did not do so and preferred to keep attractive fares, increasing them only according to inflation and energy costs.

On the other hand, most regions have limited the increase in operating costs (linked to the cost of tolls requested by SNCF Réseau) by replacing the controllers present on each train with mobile teams and by closing certain ticket offices.