In France,éseauFerré the Réseau Ferré National (RFN) is made up of railroad lines and infrastructure belonging to the French state, and assigned to SNCF Réseau.
The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF) was responsible for the network from January 1, 1983, when it was set up as an "établissement public à caractère industriel et commercial" (EPIC), until February 13, 1997, on the basis of the network conceded by the State, which had built it up since 1938 from the networks of the former major railway companies. From February 13, 1997, to December 31, 2014, the national rail network belonged to the EPIC Réseau ferré de France (RFF), with maintenance and operation delegated to SNCF. On January 1, 2015, following the demise of RFF, the network became the property of SNCF Réseau, which manages and operates it directly. In 2020, it will become the property of the French State, while remaining entrusted to SNCF Réseau.
By 2018, with over 28,000 km of track in operation and more than 2,800 stops and stations served, France has the second largest network in Europe (behind Germany), as well as the leading network of high-speed lines. Most of the network's traffic (81%) is passenger traffic (1.35 billion people carried, with an average occupancy rate of 45%). However, trains face stiff competition from trucks, roads, and even airplanes. France has developed its high-speed network but has abandoned many small lines and stations, making access to certain services more difficult in rural areas. These short lines are considered unprofitable, due to their high cost for low ridership, as well as their environmental impact when not electrified.
History
Under old companies
The very first French railroad line, and also the first in continental Europe, was the Saint-Étienne–Andrézieux railway, granted by order of King Louis XVIII to Louis-Antoine Beaunier in 1823 and opened on June 30, 1827. The 18 km line was designed to transport coal from the mines in the Loire coalfield to the river. It opened to passengers on March 1, 1832.
The law on the establishment of major railway lines (also known as the "Railway Charter"), passed on June 11, 1842, defined the French railroad system, creating a model of public-private partnership. The State became the owner of the land on which the lines were to be constructed and financed the construction of the infrastructure (engineering structures and buildings). Use of the line was then granted to private companies, who built the superstructure (tracks and facilities), invested in rolling stock, and enjoyed a monopoly of operation on their lines.
The rail network rapidly expanded throughout the country. The network was built from Paris in the form of a star network, known as the Legrand star.
The Freycinet plan, adopted in 1879, envisaged linking each sub-prefecture to the rail network.
The network reached 3,000 km by 1852, 17,000 km by 1870, and 26,000 km by 1882.
Alsace-Lorraine was annexed to the German Empire in 1871. As a result, its rail network was operated by the Kaiserliche Generaldirektion der Eisenbahnen in Elsaß-Lothringen (Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine - EL). When Alsace-Lorraine returned to France after World War I, this network was operated by the Administration des chemins de fer d'Alsace et de Lorraine, created in 1919 and managed by the State, since the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Est, which had operated it before 1871, did not wish to take it over.
By 1914, the French general-interest rail network had reached 39,400 km, rising to 42,000 km at its peak in the late 1920s. Added to this was the voie ferrée d'intérêt local, with a maximum extension in 1928 of 20,921 km of lines, operated directly by the general councils or by various private companies on behalf of the départements. The total represents some 63,000 km of track in mainland France. This local network declined rapidly from the 1930s onwards, with 70 km remaining in 2010.
In 1937, just before the creation of the SNCF, the French rail network was operated by the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord (Nord), the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Est (Est), the communauté d'intérêt financière, commerciale et technique des Compagnies des chemins de fer de Paris à Orléans and du Midi et du Canal latéral à la Garonne (known as PO-Midi), the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM), plus the Syndicats du chemin de fer de Grande Ceinture et de Petite Ceinture and the two national administrations, chemins de fer d'Alsace-Lorraine (AL) and chemins de fer de l'État (État).