Transport express régional

In the Transport express régional (TER) is a sub- company of the French state railway SNCF, which operates regional services in the administrative regions.

Overview

The SNCF established the TER system in 1984 in order to provide a basic framework for local transport can. Since the late 1990s it is coordinated with the 22 administrations of the regions of France. The companies in the respective regions determine, in accordance with SNCF define the routes, the number of connections, the fares and services.

The offers of the TER system are subsidized to a large extent by the taxpayers. On average, 72 % of the cost will come from the state and regional administrations, while only 28 % of the costs are covered by ticket sales. Experience has shown that explode these costs over time, as the regional governments are striving to expand the offer in their regions.

The low profitability of the TER system is mainly due to the fact that the trains in the morning and evening, although utilized by commuter traffic, but are chronically understaffed at the other times of day. As a result, the utilization of the trains is not very high; the vehicles travel at an average occupancy rate of only 66 passengers per trip.

Discharge the responsibility

Seven of the twenty-two regions have experimented since 1997 with the acceptance of responsibility under its own control: the TER Alsace, Centre TER TER Nord-Pas- de -Calais, TER Provence -Alpes- Côte d' Azur, TER Rhône -Alpes, the TER Pays de la Loire, and since January 1999, the TER Limousin.

1998, traffic increased in these seven regions by an average of 4.9%, compared with 3.2% in the other regions.

Some other regions have signed conventions intermédiaires to prepare for the decentralization of the network: The TER Haute -Normandie region in September 1997, the TER Midi -Pyrénées and TER Bourgogne in November 1997, the TER Picardie in January 1998 and TER Lorraine in February 1998.

History

• March 31, 1994: Publication of the report " régions, SNCF: vers un renouveau du service public" by the Haenel Commission.
• February 4, 1995: The Act for the administration and development of the region puts the responsibility for the regional rail transport in the hands of the regions.
• December 19, 1996: signing of the first contract with the Rhône-Alpes region.

Budget for the regional rail

Some published figures of the regions:

These figures do not include spending on infrastructure.

TER and Tourism

The SNCF has determined nine TER offerings and tourist trains ( trains touristiques ):

• Chemins de fer de la Corse ( Corsica trains )
• Train des Merveilles ( train of Wonders)
• Train des gorges de l' Allier ( Allier Gorges - train )
• Ligne Saint- Gervais- Vallorcine (Mont- Blanc Express )
• Ligne de Cerdanya / train jaune (yellow train )
• AutoRail Espérance ( train of Hope)
• Chemin de fer du Blanc -Argent
• Train des Alpes ( alpine campaign )
• Ligne des hirondelles ( Schwalbe's line )