By Denis CHOUMERT* and Christian ROSE**

* President of the Association des Utilisateurs de Transports de Fret (AUTF)
** Assistant at AUTF

Abstract

It has long been popular to blame the woes of shipping freight by rail on insolent competition from truckers. This simplistic, erroneous finger-pointing has inevitably come up with inapplicable solutions. The latter fail to directly address the real, structural problems of operating conditions and the cost of shipping freight by train. The reform of the French rail system now under way, by opening the door to competition in rail passenger services, might wreak collateral damage on rail freight services.