It has been ten years since the Flixbus company arrived in France, at the time of the advent of the “Macron cars”, named after the Minister of the Economy of the time which had liberalized the links by coach. On May 26, Flix, the parent company of Flixbus, announced that it had ordered 65 trains (including 35 optional) to the Spanish Talgo and the German Siemens, for the locomotives. Or a contract of 2.4 billion euros, construction and maintenance included, which brings the German company out of its historic model which allowed it to dominate the long -distance cars market in Europe without having a single vehicle.
“For cars, we work with partners, more than a thousand companies that buy buses, keep them, roll them and use drivers. But for trains, it's different! »»explains André Schwämmlein, CEO of Flix, met in Paris, where he was passing through the ten years of his presence in France.
If the Flixbus model has proven that it was possible-and profitable-to subcontract the exploitation of cars to third-party companies, a similar model is more complex in the rail: the actors are few, access to the infrastructure is highly regulated and the trains available are an extremely rare commodity. Clearly, it is necessary to have trains, rented or purchased, to make a place in this market.
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Source: Lemonde