The Grand Est region will open up cross-border rail lines to Germany to competition to take effect in three years, AFP learned from the community on Friday (December 17th). It’s a “first in France for the cross-border”, stressed to AFP Jean Rottner, president (LR) of the regional council. The region plans to start operations on December 8, 2024, after the call for competition that it will publish at the end of this month jointly with three Länder, with a view to designating the winners in mid-2023.
>> Price, stations, comfort… Five questions about Trenitalia, the first TGV competitor in France, which will be on track from Saturday
In its plenary session by videoconference, the regional council voted to initiate the procedure for the operation of seven links representing a total of 525 kilometers from Metz (Moselle), Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) and Mulhouse (Haut- Rhine) to the German border towns of Trier, Saarbrücken, Neustadt, Karlsruhe, Offenburg and Müllheim, located in the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Saar and Baden-Württemberg.
The fifteen-year contract is divided into two lots, one from Metz and one from Alsace, for an operating volume estimated at 6.4 million train-kilometers * per year, including two thirds in French territory. According to the executive of the region, these lines represent a development potential that is currently underutilized by the SNCF.
The market, which includes the take-over of SNCF staff, will be open to “any operator, French, German or other”, added David Valence, vice-president of the region for Transport, during a press briefing before Wednesday.
According to David Valence and Evelyne Isinger, regional advisor in charge of cross-border mobility, the opening will multiply the offer by two to four depending on the sections, in response to a “strong demand”, and she “will even create it” on the Metz-Trèves and Strasbourg-Karlsruhe lines, “which will go from zero trains during the week to 8 and 17 round trips per day respectively”.
* Unit of measurement equivalent to the journey of a train over a distance of one kilometer