In September 2023, France witnessed an unprecedented scenario that flies in the face of both the spirit of rail liberalisation and European legislation. Trenitalia France was forced to suspend its domestic services between Paris and Lyon after being repeatedly denied access to SNCF’s technicentres, despite several formal requests.
The trigger for this operational standstill was the rockfall in the Maurienne Valley on 27 August 2023, which obliterated the rail artery between France and Italy and prevented Trenitalia from ferrying its rolling stock to Milan.
Though the disruption might reasonably have impacted only cross-border trains, it effectively stranded Trenitalia’s high-speed Frecciarossa 1000 sets, cut off from their regular maintenance regime.
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Unable to book in for routine checks or ensure safe operating conditions, the Italian operator was forced to halt all domestic French workings on 4 September. These services, which have gone head-to-head with SNCF since April 2022, were axed until further notice.
A rebuff that undermines European open access principles
Even prior to the landslip, Trenitalia had already approached SNCF Voyageurs multiple times for access to maintenance facilities, only to be met with a flat refusal. The French state incumbent justified its stance by citing a lack of available capacity and technical differences in the rolling stock.
However, both European regulators and France’s own Autorité de Régulation des Transports (ART) have flagged that such practices could breach Directive 2012/34/EU and Regulation (EU) 2017/2177, both of which mandate non-discriminatory access to rail infrastructure for competing operators.
By contrast, in Spain, Renfe is obliged to allow both Ouigo and Iryo access to its depots. To add fuel to the fire, Ouigo—owned by the very SNCF Voyageurs that blocked Trenitalia France—has recently made headlines for exceeding its agreed allocation of maintenance slots at Renfe depots. The French side has gone as far as to claim that it may be forced to pull out of Spain if Renfe does not continue business as usual.
Renfe’s president, Álvaro Fernández Heredia, shed further light on this in a recent interview with Trenvista.
A delayed and fateful solution
Relief only arrived after the Maurienne crisis and mounting institutional pressure, when SNCF at last greenlit a limited arrangement for Trenitalia to use the Technicentre Sud-Est Européen. Trenitalia deployed its own maintenance crews as part of an emergency measure—a one-off that enabled the partial reinstatement of Paris–Lyon services during the Franco-Italian rail isolation.
The move ensured Trenitalia kept footplate crews working on French turf, but the episode sharply underscored the shortcomings of the French market’s liberalisation model, where the dominant player retains a firm grip over critical facilities.
Other operators face similar barriers
Renfe has not been immune to such hurdles. While its series 100 sets operating international diagrams don’t require French-side maintenance, progress on certifying the series 106 was hamstrung by lack of depot access. This left Renfe with no option but to return trains earmarked for testing to Spain for even basic works. The impasse was resolved only in August, when the Avril set passed tests at the Technicentre Sud-Est Européen.
Other new entrants eager to run on French rails are hitting the same brick wall, prompting some to invest in building their own maintenance bases.