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| Type | state-owned company |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Ave. de France, Paris, France |
| Area served | France |
| Industry | Infrastructure & Tracks Proprietor, State Administrator |
| Parent | Ministère du Transport |
| Website | www.rff.fr |
Réseau Ferré de France (French: French Rail Network), (RFF), owns and maintains the French national railway network. The trains are operated by SNCF, the national railway company, but due to European Union Directive 91/440, the French government was required to separate train operations from the railway infrastructure.
Overview
The RFF was constituted with SNCF's infrastructure assets, and debts were transferred from the SNCF book to RFF's. Currently RFF is mainly a financial structure focusing on debt refinancing, and it contracts the majority of its infrastructure management to SNCF. In the future, it is expected to be capable of building, maintaining and renovating the French national railway infrastructure on its own. Signalling on RFF infrastructure is implemented and maintained by SNCF.
The creation of RFF was criticised because of the financial options chosen: RFF is subsidised by the French government in order to pay the interest on debt previously borne by the SNCF. SNCF now has a positive operating income and thus enables competition to be opened. The creation of the RFF structure was dismissed by political opponents and some economists as a move to liberalise French railways at the taxpayer's expense. Another criticism is that RFF's policy of stopping losses is that it hampers the investment capacities of the French rail system.[citation needed]
External links
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