Transport, François Ruffin
Rail: Rail freight tripled, night trains, air traffic halved
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 renouveau du secteur ferroviaire permettra aussi de tripler la part du fret ferroviaire dans le transport de marchandises, permettant de décarboner le fret et de réduire les nuisances liées aux camions. Nous développerons aussi les trains de nuit et les liaisons directes vers les grandes villes européennes, afin d’offrir de réelles alternatives à l’avion et de réduire de moitié le trafic aérien. »1Translation by the editorsThe revival of the rail sector will also make it possible to triple the share of rail freight in goods transport, decarbonising freight and reducing the nuisance caused by lorries. We will also develop night trains and direct links to major European cities, in order to offer real alternatives to the plane and to halve air traffic.
Encoding
No cost-schedule parameter for this position: see the costing for the reason.
Costing
Announced by the candidate
not announced
The programme does not cost this measure.
Published costings
none
No external costing of this position recorded to date.
Our calculation
not costed
Traffic targets (freight tripled, night trains) with no amount of investment or aid: nothing to cost.
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.
- Cahier « Pour un travaillisme écologique ». Read the programme page.
Contest this encoding (prefilled email; procedure and deadlines)