Transport, Fabien Roussel
Rail: €10bn more a year for rail
Direction of change: increase, compared with current law.
The lever. Rail: investment in the network, small lines, opening to competition, main lines, rail freight (fares and season tickets for everyday journeys: the “Everyday transport” lever). Direction rule: ↑ more rail investment or services.
« Le développement prioritaire du rail et des transports publics, grâce à un investissement supplémentaire de 10 milliards d’euros par an dans le ferroviaire et la mise en place de la gratuité des transports publics urbains. »1Translation by the editorsThe priority development of rail and public transport, through an additional investment of 10 billion euros a year in rail and the introduction of free urban public transport.
Words of Fabien Roussel, pcf.fr, « Face à l'explosion des prix, le Gouvernement doit déclarer l'état d'urgence énergétique ! » (déclaration signée de Fabien Roussel), 8 April 2026. Position taken from public statements, not from a written programme.
No programme released. Positions taken from public statements, words of associates or documents of the candidate’s party, each dated and sourced; last recorded on 18 October 2026.
Encoding
| Parameter | Current law | Proposed | Effective date or horizon |
|---|---|---|---|
| Additional public rail investment | 0 €bn/year | 10 €bn/year | Public spending in full year 2032, compared with current policies under which the 2028 commitment is not written into an enacted law |
Costing
Announced by the candidate
−€10bn
per year, cost to the public accounts. « un investissement supplémentaire de 10 milliards d’euros par an dans le ferroviaire » [“an additional investment of 10 billion euros a year in rail”]
Published costings
none
No external costing of this position recorded to date.
Our calculation
−€10bn
per year for the public accounts, new spending. Candidate’s amount, taken as is.
The calculation
- Additional public rail investment: (10 − 0) ÷ 1 = 10 times “+€1bn a year of public rail investment”, each a cost of €1bn (1 to 1).
Candidate's amount, counted as additional public spending (€1 announced = €1). The text does not say what share would go through SNCF Réseau rather than the State budget, nor the split between network, rolling stock and freight. Free urban public transport, in the same sentence, falls under the “Everyday transport” lever.
Figure announced by the candidate: candidate’s amount, taken as is.
Current law, sources and limits of the cost schedule
Current law. Renewal and modernisation of the rail network amount to about €3bn a year, stable, financed by SNCF Réseau (own resources and contributions from SNCF Voyageurs), not by the State budget (Senate, opinion a25-143-2). The « Ambition France Transports » conference (9 July 2025) assesses the need at €1.5bn a year more; « à partir de 2028 » [“from 2028”] and the total effort of €4.5bn a year come from the press (Banque des territoires), to be financed in time by the future motorway concessions. The framework transport bill (tabled on 11 February 2026) was adopted in the Senate on 28 April 2026 and was in committee at the National Assembly in July 2026: it has not been finally passed. The resources of AFIT France planned in the PLF 2026 amount to €3.75bn.
Horizon. Public spending in full year 2032, compared with current policies under which the 2028 commitment is not written into an enacted law.
Limits. The lower bound of 0 corresponds to the case where the government commitment « dès 2028 » [“from 2028”] would be a current policy; it is not written into a law that has been voted, and the central value counts it as a cost, with the same rule for all candidates. Part of the effort is borne by SNCF Réseau (attributed revenue (fonds de concours), SNCF group profits), so not everything goes through the State budget. Major projects (LGV high-speed lines, metropolitan RER, freight with the Ulysse Fret plan of about €4.5bn) are costed at the announced amount. A total envelope with no duration is converted to an annual figure over the five-year term (five years), common rule of 18 October 2026 (see public investment).
- Avis budgétaire PLF 2026, transports (Sénat, a25-143-2, synthèse), 2025-11: « « La conférence Ambition France Transport a montré que la régénération du réseau ferroviaire exigeait environ 1,5 milliard d'euros supplémentaires par an. » ; « Les moyens consacrés à la régénération du réseau et à sa modernisation sont stables, à hauteur d'environ 3 Mds € » ; « deux milliards d'euros supplémentaires sont nécessaires par an pour régénérer ces infrastructures » »
- Développement des transports : le projet de loi-cadre sur les rails (Banque des territoires), 2026-02: « « de 3 milliards d'euros par an aujourd'hui » « à 4,5 milliards d'euros » ; engagement « dès 2028 » ; futures concessions : « près de 2,5 milliards d'euros par an » »
How to read these amounts. These are static costs and revenues, with no feedback effect, over a full year: nothing on growth, employment or the revenue that economic activity would gain or lose. A higher net cost does not on its own make a worse policy, nor net savings a better one: each programme rests on an economic model (demand-led stimulus, lower compulsory levies, consolidation of the public accounts…) that the cost schedule does not settle. GDP itself measures a volume of activity, not well-being or the usefulness of what is produced. Economic models and feedback effects.
- pcf.fr, « Face à l'explosion des prix, le Gouvernement doit déclarer l'état d'urgence énergétique ! » (déclaration signée de Fabien Roussel), 8 April 2026. Words of Fabien Roussel. Position taken from public statements, not from a written programme. Read the source (pcf.fr, « Face à l'explosion des prix, le Gouvernement doit déclarer l'état d'urgence énergétique ! » (déclaration signée de Fabien Roussel)).
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