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French Motorways: Experience and Assessment
French Motorways: Experience and Assessment
Abstract
France has a long lasting experience both in motorways building and in motorways management
with special reference to concessions. As matter of fact it has developed many specific
organizational procedures, and lessons can be drawn for the future from this experience. The aim of
this article is to provide some of these lessons looking into the evolution of the French motorway
system in connection with economical and institutional changes.
On the central governments road network, which corresponds to 4% of the whole road network,
40% of traffic is concentrated, in particular on motorways and more especially on toll motorways
(7,840 km), which support an average traffic of 26,400 vehicles/km per day (Table 2). The intercity
motorways, which make the framework of the national network, are usually tolled. The density of
the French motorway network is about 14 km per 1000 square km and 140 km per million
inhabitants.
1 The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the
organizations, which the author belongs to
1
Length (Km)
38,600
41,500
Motorways
10,400
31,000
National roads
28,200
10,500
360,000
1,300
150
Country roads
According to recent law 2004-809, a significant part of the national road network (20,000 km out of
the present 38,600 km) will be transferred to counties from January 2006. Only the core network the main axes having national or European interest - will remain managed, directly or through
concessions, by the national government which represents approximately 18,000 km including the
whole motorways network, 7,840 km of that are under concession. (Graph 1)
Graph 1 - Evolution of national road network (French roads directorate statistics)
The current national network
Actually the road services of the central government are going to be reorganized. At the present
time the French Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport is structured on the basis of a central
administration based on Paris and a local network, both at the regional (Direction rgionale de
lquipement) and county levels (Direction dpartementale de lquipement). In a next future,
eleven interregional road directorates (Directions interrgionales des routes) will be set up in order
to manage the 10,000 km of the trunk roads and not tolled motorways (roughly 5,000 km ordinary
roads, 5,000 km double carriageways and motorways). The idea is to run national roads on the basis
of routes superseding the existing area organization (Graph 2). According to each itinerary, the
interregional road directorates will provide users with management and traffic information centers
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along with maintenance and intervention centers, distributed along the network every 60 km
approximately. The regional directorates will be in charge of the matrise douvrage (i.e.
owners management ).
Graph 2 Interregional road directorates organization (French roads directorate statistics)
Toll motorways
Itineraries run by
interregional road
directories
To be more precise, at the present time the motorways network is composed as follows:
Motorway network length
Toll motorways
Free motorways
2x2 lanes to become motorways
10,400 km
7,840 km
2,560 km
1,035 km
Graph 3
In 2004 (French roads directorate statistics)
Tolled motorways
Free motorways
Financial aspects
The financial aspects of road sector can be appraised from several points of view. In particular, the
evolution of funds devoted to road, split according to the source (user, national tax-payer, local taxpayer), is shown in the following graph (Graph 4). Two main ideas have to be kept in mind: first,
funds devoted to the governments road network (national roads and motorways) coming from the
national budget decrease while funds coming from other sources increase steadily; second,
motorway companies investments have increased whereas resources coming from local authorities
are now stable after a steady increase up to the 90s. At the present time, expenditures carried out by
concessionaire companies on 7,840 km of toll motorways are bigger than public investment
(governmental and local funds) on the rest of national road network (30,600 km). Public and private
funds are used both for maintenance and investments; the split between these two categories being
made according to the Table 4.
32%
53%
100
90
80
70
60 56%
50
40
30
27%
20
10
Graph 4
Breakdown of financing resources for the French national motorway network from 1973 to
2001 (according to French roads Directorate statistics)
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
Table 4 - Breakdown of the expenditures on the French National Road Network in 2003
(In billion , Gvt staff non included, according to French roads Directorate statistics)
According to the use:
MAINTENANCE
INVESTMENT
TOTAL
TOLLED UNTOLLE
(7,840 km) D
(30,600 km)
0,7
0,6
2,1
1,8
2,8
2,4
TOTAL
1,3
3,9
5,2
Toll revenues are used by companies to finance: operating costs which are related to customer
services (maintenance, safety,), depreciation, financial costs linked to interest and repayment of
loans (i.e. investments in infrastructure), VAT and other taxes. In the next Graph (Graph 5) the
breakdown of 10 euros of toll collection in 2003 is illustrated.
Graph 5 Breakdown of 10 euro of toll collection in 2003 (according to ASFA statistics)
1.70
Finance charges: 2,20
VAT: 1,60
1.80
2.20
1.60
1.10
1.60
Depreciation: 1,70
According to the Decree n. 95-81 of January, 24 1995 the toll tariff evolution in France is fixed on
the basis of five-year planning contracts signed between the Government and each concessionaire.
These contracts provide a frame of reference in terms of legal and economic conditions covering a
mid-term horizon. The concession contracts are the legal basis of the concession and the five-year
planning contracts allow a fine-tuning. In particular, they deal with three main aspects:
the companies agreed objectives concerning maintenance and investments in infrastructures
and services;
the companies agreed objectives concerning road safety, social policy and environmental
protection.
the obligations and rights in terms of toll tariff evolution according to the financial and toll
policies pursued;
The first generation of five-year contracts drew to a close at the end of 1999. Because of the
ongoing reforms in the concession system and TVA regulation, the preparation of new contracts has
been held up until 2001. Five new contracts have been signed since then and others will be signed
in a near future.
within companies appeared gradually; it undermined the concept itself of profitability of the
individual motorway segments and even of the company (for public companies). Last but not least,
the concession agreement of the four private companies stated that the toll rates would be set by the
company in the limits determined in the concession agreements; this procedure was extended to
public companies. Nevertheless in 1975, the Ministry of Finance declared it would regulate tolls.
Therefore, tolls came back firmly under the Ministry of Finance's control and this Ministry can, by
this way, control the entire toll motorway system. This breach of contract was backed by the
administrative Supreme Court, Conseil dEtat, relying on a 1942 price control law (C.E. N
01139 01146 01147 01159 13/05/1977).
From 1994 to 2000: contractualisation and consolidation inside the public sector,
extension of tolls in urban areas
Since 1995 (decree 95-81, mentioned), multi-year contracts for investment have been implemented;
these contracts make a balance between investments and toll increases and give certainty to
concessionaires for a five-year range. The semi-public companies have been consolidated into three
main groups in order to gain in terms of geographical coherence and financial viability. Parallel to
this consolidation, there has been an increase in capital (from about EURO 4 million to EURO 150
million). From the mid-nineties, toll entered in cities, through specific links, and with some
difficulties due to acceptability issues. The first intra-urban motorway was the Prado-Carnage
tunnel inside Marseille (1993), which connected the center of the city (Canebire) to the eastern part
of the agglomeration through a tunnel that already existed and had just to be reshaped. The tunnel
was franchised to a private company, which run it successfully. In Lyon, the TEO scheme (1997,
about 10 km long) was not so successful; the toll motorway was auctioned and franchised to a
private consortium, which levied a too high toll; after demonstrations and protestations of the users,
the municipality, COURLY, Le Grand Lyon, cancelled the franchise at a great expense and operated
by itself the link, with a much lower toll; the operator is EPERLY. Another urban toll link was built
in 1998 in the Ile-de-France agglomeration (A14, La Dfense - Orgeval, about 20 km long), and
worked successfully. A toll motorway link (A86, about 20 km long with an innovative low gauge
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double deck tunnel), which will achieve the second ring road around Paris, is presently under
construction.
107 km
67 km
7 km
10 km
Private companies
COFIROUTE
SMTPC (Prado-Carnage)
896 km
2,5 km
Viaduc de MILLAU
ALIS
The future?
The evolution of the French motorway concession system is fundamentally a pragmatic process
with no dogmas; the main concern was to meet the issues when they occur with a streamline of
providing the country with the infrastructures needed. Now with a meshed mature network and a
significant part of equity of the companies floated, a question arises: what is a concession company?
- a way of managing facilities in a comprehensive manner and on a long range and/or earmarking
resources in a public-public partnership,
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a commercial company, even listed, but with a systematic distribution of dividends (and an
expected recycling in transport infrastructure through AFITF - Agence de financement des
infrastructures de transport de France created by decree 2004-1317, 2/11/2004),
a way for contractors to have contracts awarded,
a company with an actual business plan and the subsequent means.
In case of toll is users charge the recovery of costs or price of provision for a service.
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