Allow “French people who experience the most difficulties to take the train”. Guest of the Franceinfo morning show, Thursday December 7, the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune announced a series of measures concerning the prices charged by the SNCF, or the refusal to lower the speed limit on the Paris ring road.
“Fare shield” on trains
The Minister for Transport announced on Thursday the price capping of several SNCF offers, such as Ouigo and Intercités trains, as well as advantage cards, on Franceinfo. “The train must be affordable and popular”, affirmed the Minister of Transport, announcing to achieve this four measures for the railway, including three price freezes constituting a sort of “price shield” on the model of what had been made “last year” in the face of inflation for energy prices.
“I want us to have a price shield again next year, but for it to be a little different: I want it to be targeted precisely at the French who have the most difficulty taking the train,” said explained the minister. “First, there will be a freeze on prices on the Ouigo”, or “one TGV in four”, he announced, because “it is often the TGV that young people take, that people who have a little less means. “It makes high speed accessible to everyone on many lines,” said Clément Beaune.
There will also be “a freeze on prices on Intercity trains”, these trains “which have been neglected” in terms of investment but which “more than 12 million French people use each year”, he said. “We are buying new trains,” he noted, “but we are also going to freeze their prices, it’s a question of respect, for next year.”
A “rail pass” for unlimited travel
The Minister for Transport also “demanded from the SNCF” that the fare ceilings enjoyed by holders of the Avantage reduction card, which had been increased by 10 euros this summer, do not increase throughout 2024. .
Furthermore, Clément Beaune confirmed the launch “by next summer” of a Rail Pass, which will allow unlimited TER and Intercités travel anywhere in France. “It is also a measure to lower prices, because it will allow a price that will be very accessible,” he said. This price is not yet defined, because “we are in the process of discussing it with the regions”, he recalled, but it will be in “the order of magnitude of what the Germans do, it that is to say around 49 euros per month”.
No reduction in speed on the Paris ring road
Furthermore, the Minister of Transport commented on the desire of Paris City Hall to lower the speed limit to 50km/h on the ring road after the Olympic Games. The State “will not validate” this measure: “I think it is not a good idea in the short term to have this speed limit” and “at the end of 2024, we will not take the decision, we will not validate the decision” to limit the speed to 50 km/h, he explained.
The Paris town hall explained at the end of November its desire to limit the speed on the ring road to 50 km/h after the 2024 summer Olympic Games, in addition to reserving one of the lanes for carpooling – a revolution supposed to protect the environment but which has since sparked lively political controversy.
This new speed limit aims to make traffic flow more smoothly on this very congested route, by encouraging residents of the Ile-de-France region to avoid “self-driving” and to use public transport. The main objective of this measure is to reduce pollution and noise pollution, particularly at night for the 500,000 people who live in the immediate vicinity of this axis.
If the ring road “is managed by the City of Paris”, a change in the speed limit “obviously requires validation from the State”, argued Clément Beaune, however saying he was “open” to the idea of a reserved lane. “I think the reserved lane is a good thing,” he noted. But if, at the same time, the speed limit increases to 50 km/h, “I think you’re going to drive people crazy,” he continued.