A consequent loss of turnover for SNCF. The Covid-19 crisis should cost the railway company nearly four billion euros, a figure announced on Sunday June 14 by the group's CEO, Jean-Pierre Farandou, in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche.

"The loss of turnover should be close to 4 billion euros, the TGV alone representing half," said Jean-Pierre Farandou. If we add that linked to the strikes against the pension reform, estimated at one billion euros, the loss for SNCF is some 5 billion euros since December 2019.

During the period of confinement, "only 7% of TGVs drove and they transported only 1% of regular customers. We also recorded significant shortfalls on the trains of daily life. Only the freight has rather resisted well, with an activity rate higher than 60% ", says the CEO of SNCF.

Hoping for a recovery "as quickly as possible", Jean-Pierre Farandou said about the TGV that "a few trains" were full in June: "For July we record on average 20% of reservations, and for August around 8%" , said the SNCF boss, according to whom "we are very far from the speed of the restart observed after a strike".

"We will continue to recruit this year"

The CEO of the SNCF has also expressed his desire to replace by 2030 with trains running on hydrogen "all trains running on diesel on the network which is not electrified".

"With the regions, we will put the first prototypes into service in 2023", specifies Jean-Pierre Farandou. "In the meantime, we are developing hybrid trains with Alstom which will arrive in 2021 in 4 regions. They run on diesel on the main route but switch to electric when entering cities. They therefore make less noise and pollute less."

He did not quantify the cost of these measures which aim to achieve the carbon footprint of "zero emissions in 2035".

Asked about a possible financial gesture by the State, the CEO of the SNCF - who asked three weeks ago for a revival plan for the railways - replied that he had "regular exchanges with the State". Regarding employment, he once again dismissed the dismissal hypothesis: "On the contrary, we will continue to recruit this year and next year," he said.

Recalling having raised two funds of 1.2 billion euros in Europe and the United States, he committed to "a savings plan which represents several hundreds of millions of euros", and which includes on equipment purchases and operating costs.

With AFP

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