High-speed Transport by Claudia Sonea

The economic crisis has affected seriously the means of transport. Airlines around the world have faced difficulties and some couldn’t handle the pressure, the losses and filed for bankruptcy such being the case of Japan Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Northwest Airlines, etc. As the gas price has spiked up, travelling by car or buss is more and more expensive which could make people turn to a cheaper and in the same time comfortable and safer mean of transport: by train. David Azéma, Head of Strategy and Finance at French state railway company, SNCF stated in an interview for France24 that the revenues for 2009 have s! tagnated both for the cargo and for the passenger transport. Although there is targeted to double the profits by 2012, Azema believes that at the most the revenues will be increased with 50% by then. There is need for a new management, a new market strategy, for a renewal of the railway transport that will lead to the doubling of profits. Structural weaknesses are characteristic to the railways as they cannot match the fees charged by road transport and the fix costs generate losses. Azema consider that the rail freight is not only a company problem, but also a green policy antinomy, thus SNCF is working with the public authorities to find a solution. Another matter that hangs above the SNCF fate is that of liberalization throughout European Union for passenger transport. The competition will be greater and the previous monopoly might be lost, but the difference in the high-speed transport will be made in the end by the! quality of service, the marketing strategy. SNCF is not only ! a safe c ompany, ready to face competition, but it is able to plan an expansion to Marocco, US and to develop projects.

related story (sgx16260): http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/121/article_6595.asp...

by Claudia Sonea for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

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