Paris (AFP)

The first five projects of train lines were made public on Monday as part of the opening to competition of the major commercial lines of passenger transport, scheduled for the end of 2020, all coming from the German company FlixTrain.

These projects concern journeys between Paris-North-Brussels-North, Paris-Bercy-Lyon-Perrache, Paris-Bercy-Nice (in night time), Paris-Bercy-Toulouse and Paris-Austerlitz-Bordeaux, according to documents published on Monday. by the Regulatory Authority for Rail and Road Activities (Arafer).

They total 25 intermediate stops, and each link (step between two stops) will be "potentially marketable", according to the company. The European regulation which defines the conditions of access of the private operators to the rail network gives a delay of one month so that the authorities organizing transport - mainly the regions - can contest these projects because they would come "to jeopardize the economic equilibrium existing public services ", in particular the TERs, recalls the regulator.

FlixTrain, a subsidiary of the FlixMobility group, which is also part of FlixBus, is finally the only company to have applied for these five lines, while SNCF Réseaux indicated at the beginning of the year that it had "two keys" among the railway operators.

"The step we are taking today is a manifesto of very strong interest for certain lines, which we have identified as having high potential." It is estimated that it is possible to generate on these routes. there is a lot of additional demand compared to what exists, "said Yvan Lefranc-Morin, Managing Director France of FlixBus (subsidiary of the FlixMobility group, which also includes FlixTrain), in an interview with AFP.

As in Germany, where the company has been operating since April 2018, FlixTrain will focus on network planning and ticket sales and intends to work with subcontractors who will own and circulate the trains, flocked in green with the image of the company. Mark.

In France, FlixBus has been operating low-cost intercity bus lines for four years. "We are going to integrate these trains into a much wider network that today represents the new modes of cheap mobility.The interest for us is to create a permeability between the coach and the train because we are convinced of the complementarity of these modes of transport, added Yvan Lefranc-Morin.

- "Not a TGV model" -

These five rail projects are intended to begin service for the "2021 schedule", which will actually start on December 12, 2020. While it was possible to offer high-speed lines, FlixTrain focused on an offer "equivalent to trains Intercités, with necessarily more affordable prices".

Depending on the projects submitted, a Paris-Lyon trip will take 4 hours and 22 minutes and connecting Paris to Toulouse will take 6 hours and 35 minutes.

For the longest proposed route (Paris-Nice, 10 hours and 24 minutes), the company relies on the night train. "There is a real appetite for a certain category of customers to travel at night, as we can see on our bus lines, which work very well," said Yvan Lefranc-Morin, adding "to expect a lot of what the government about it. "

The night train has declined in France and the SNCF operates only two lines. Renowned as difficult to exploit, it is also presented as the best way to go far without polluting. The Mobilities bill proposes to devote a study to them to revive them.

Beyond the commercial lines, the contracted rail services may be the subject of calls for tenders from 3 December, if the organizing authorities so wish (regions for TER and Transilien, the State for Intercités). This possibility will become mandatory, with exceptions, end of 2023.

International lines have been open to competition since 2009. The railway company Thello, a French subsidiary of the Italian state-owned company Trenitalia, already operates a night train and a classic France-Italy link and wants to launch high-speed trains. also between France and Italy from June 2020.

In Germany, FlixTrain now operates three lines and has transported one million passengers in its first year of operation, according to the company.

? 2019 AFP