Rail infrastructure and liberalization : guidelines for a strategical approach[Les infrastructures ferroviaires au prisme de la libéralisation : éléments pour une approche stratégique]

The management of the french rail network since the 1997 reform is little different from that which prevailed previously : exclusive preservation of the interests of the incumbent operator (SNCF) on the most promising part of its activity (high speed), lack of strategy on the traditional network (except the lines followed by high-speed services). Subsequently, the debt of the rail system has been growing and weighs on the financial balance of the infrastructure manager. The degradation of the network appeared in full light with the imposition of reduced speed limits which one believed initially held in the least attended lines. In spite of several audits, commitments of the government and other contracts of performance, the median age of the network still increase and degradations spread. The evolution of the structure of the network is from now on dependent on the state of its components, and the investments are explicitly dedicated to the most attended axes. To exceed this spiral of a more undergone than programmed decline, this article proposes to explore the ways of a really strategic approach of the rail network. This approach rests on two scales of management: that of the national network in its entirety and that of the Regions in their new contours. We intend to rehabilitate the concepts of connectivity and robustness, while taking into account the regional strategies of service.