The situation may prove to be a sacred blow of Club

Make leap its income by half and double its operating profit in five years: with the collapse of the financial system, most companies have forgotten this type of proactive discourse for years to come. Not the SNCF, which maintains its "Destination 2012" plan Cape, unveiled last spring. "This crisis is of extreme gravity, but the new energy and environmental situation gives us despite a historic chance", said Guillaume Pepy, the President of the railway company, speaking before a press to Megève at a seminar. The current morass is not however without impact on the health of the company. This is the case for the transport industry and logistics, directly affected by the economic downturn. His weakest, cargo SNCF the return to equilibrium is normally scheduled for 2010 thus declined this summer in its activity of 5 to 7 a year. "The situation may prove to be a sacred blow of Club." "If we enter two years of slowdown in the real economy, it is clear that we will have a delay in the conduct of our objectives," explains Pierre Blayau, the pattern of this pole.

The railway company must therefore redouble their vigilance to achieve. "There is no plan of discipline, but a very ambitious plan of walking for the performance of each of the branches", said Guillaume Pepy. For cargo SNCF, it passes through the introduction of new conditions of work, while 800 drivers on a total of 4,000 about already stepped candidates experiment with this new system. "We can potentially save 50 to 60 million per year," calculates Pierre Blayau. For travellers France Europe (VFE), the branch lines, it will be to make productivity gains on the TGV 450 Park existing. A larger rotation should allow term to provide 45 additional trainsets for customers without investing more.

With this concern for productivity almost all (93) of the profitability of the SNCF TGV applied to any business comes, it hopes to identify additional margins to finance its development. Need much, both the programmed investments are many: renewal of the fleet of the TGV, renovation of stations on the network according to additional EUR 314 million, bringing the total programmed in Ile-de-France to EUR 1.2 billion, etc. Examples abound. "This year, the SNCF group will invest EUR 4 billion of the never-seen and compared with 2.5 billion spent three or four years ago", insists Guillaume Pepy. And, when they are not its own expenses, it is proposed to RFF for catenary of the network, including additional regeneration and adaptation 150 million annual EUR 50 million, for a total of 400 million over five years ("Les Echos" from September 30).

Beyond organic development, SNCF will also resort to external growth. "This require additional resources, with the resumption of the debt currently at a level low enough", does not hesitate to anticipate David Azéma, CEO delegate for finance and strategy. Would participation in the Deutsche Bahn decision-making, soon put on the stock market, be the order of the day "No", said Guillaume Pepy, who recognizes however that "the SNCF must play its role in the consolidation of the sector and look at the opportunities of the moment".