Paris (AFP)

Secretary of State for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said Tuesday that a "concerted action plan" should be signed by mid-February with the regions and SNCF Réseau to decide the future of small lines of trains.

"Regional action plans" must be signed "before February 15" with regional executives "for whom the work is sufficiently mature and which are voluntary", detailed Mr. Djebbari during a debate on regional trains in Senate, referring to "several billion euros".

It is a question of "preserving the maximum of our small lines of fine services of the territory", he noted.

These small lines which represent a little over 9,000 km open to travelers - or 32% of the national network - will be concretely classified into three categories, he explained.

Mr. Djebbari has differentiated those which "have a structuring character for the territory", those whose renovation is provided for in the current state-region plan contracts and the others, whose regions will have to decide the fate and on which they will be able to conduct "experiments", "with innovative solutions adapted to each line in technical and governance terms".

The new Mobility Orientation Law (LOM) notably allows regions to recover the management of certain railways, he noted.

"At the same time, I would like the State to encourage the creation of a real light rail sector to give the TER the place they deserve, including on the fine services of the territory," said Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, referring to also more suitable infrastructure and signage.

If these actions stem from the audit ordered last year by the government from the prefect François Philizot, the secretary of state remained deaf to the requests of several senators who asked him to publish this report, remained confidential despite the promises of the executive.

"The time is no longer for relationships, the time is for action," he said.

The Minister for Ecological Transition Elisabeth Borne - then in charge of transport - in January 2019 instructed Mr. Philizot to carry out a complete diagnosis of the small lines and to propose solutions on a case-by-case basis. Its conclusions were originally to be submitted to Parliament before the end of June 2019, in accordance with the railway reform law adopted a year earlier.

© 2020 AFP