The TER at the heart of regional development

According to Christian Cochet, the regionalisation of railways, in which the State hands over the organisation of railway transportation, has reconciled public service with company culture. The agreements with each of the French regions means that the SNCF is directly involved in the quantitative and qualitative results. In this way, the SNCF thereby has shown that it is capable of reaching economic objectives and of developing an alternative model to that of the TGV. As far as the regions are concerned, they have become aware of the train as being a powerful lever in terms of town and country planning and have seized the opportunity offered by their new responsibilities to revitalise the politics of regional development. A new era has just begun for public transport.