La régionalisation ferroviaire : architecture conventionnelle et modes de gouvernance

The regionalisation of the rail sector: contractual structure and management methods. – Since January 2002, following the SRU Law, the metropolitan regions (with the exception of the Paris Region and Corsica) enjoy all of the prerogatives of an organisational authority (OA) for collective regional passenger transport. Although the law introduces common measures, a great deal of room for manoeuvre remains concerning the contractual autonomy of the parties concerned. Have the regions made the best of this contractual autonomy? To what extent? In what form? In which field? The purpose of this article is to assess the regional/SNCF management methods in view of the analyses of the subcontracting operations. We will begin with the hypothesis that the contractual region/SNCF relationship may be likened to a special subcontracting relationship similar to co-contracting, the regions playing the role of the prime contractor and the SNCF that of the single contractor. This may also be considered a special subcontracting relationship due to the fact that for the time being the SNCF is the only available partner. Following an overview of the types of management theoretically possible, we will present the characteristics of the contractual organisation of relationships between the SNCF and each of the seven regions participating in the experiment, via the agreements concluded in 2002.----------------------------------------------With the Author and the publisher of the copyright agreement. The present version in PDF is under the copyright of EDITECOM (http://www.editecom.com/) - 2004.