“We are still confident, but we need more timeThis is, in essence, the remarks made this morning by the leaders of Railcoop, which for several months had positioned itself as the leading rail cooperative in France.
With the aim of reviving the service of a portion of the “diagonal of the void”, in particular in particular a first line of passengers on the Lyon-Bordeaux line, Railcoop has aroused envy: so far, it has managed to collect so far nearly 7 million euros through 12,000 individual members, 200 companies and associations, as well as 30 local authorities.
It also obtained its rail operating license last year in the midst of a health crisis, and started the first freight trains last November 15 in the Toulouse region, in order to “derisk“his project and to rub shoulders with the operation of a first line, first in the field of freight transport.
But it is clear that two major obstacles still stand in the way of the future Bordeaux-Lyon, and they will now condition the commissioning of this first line which was intended to be emblematic, and whose launch has now been postponed to a date yet unknown.
A financing file still not completed
Because the first obstacle still lies in its discussions, still in progress, with its banking partners to complete its plan of finally 30 million euros, originally planned for the start of its Lyon-Bordeaux line.
Railcoop counted in fact initially on a contribution of 15 million euros in equity, and 15 million euros in bank loans. However, to date, despite several fundraising campaigns, the cooperative has only raised 7 million euros, including 2 million during its last fundraising in equity securities.
However, Railcoop has not given up and has just backed a fundraising campaign on Lita with other Scop (Enercoop, Commons, Label Emmaius, etc.) and is already preparing a second round of its fundraising campaign, which this time could be reserved for legal persons.
“We are also in discussions with players such as CG Scop, which in particular offers to provide us with 500,000 euros as well as with organizations such as the Banque des Territoires and the Caisse des dépôts, in order to reflect on a quasi-equity mechanism”poster Alexandra Debaisieux, Deputy CEO of Railcoop.
Because the cooperative draws up in parallel a bitter observation: even if the opening to competition has technically allowed an opening of the market, it had not planned the creation from scratch of new rail operators, nor associated financing mechanisms.
Result ? At this stage, Railcoop believes that only access to public guarantees, still under discussion, would allow it to contribute to securing its financial partners, in particular concerning the risk of operation and the loss of traffic which could be incurred in the event of new pandemics. .
A delay (and an additional cost?) in the renovation of the trains
On the operational side, another major obstacle emerged with the delay in the schedule recorded this time in the renovation campaign for the eight X 72-500 trains, for which it had launched a call for tenders to manufacturers.
As a reminder, Railcoop had chosen to bet on the acquisition of old rolling stock from SCNF Réseau, mainly with diesel engines.because only 100 of the 600 km of Bordeaux-Paris are electrified“, but also for cost reasons, while defending the fact that this material was “reliable and suitable for interurban services“.
With a carbon footprint that would still be to its advantage, given the “massification” allowed by rail: “one of our members calculated that the train being much more energy efficient than the road, the The carbon footprint per passenger of a Bordeaux-Lyon would be equivalent to that of a person driving a Tesla electric vehicle”, indicates Nicolas Debaisieux, director general of the SCIC, without however advancing precise figures.
Nevertheless “in the closure of our global financing, we could not start the renovation of the trains”he adds.
All the more so since after having had a German firm carry out an initial expertise on this subject, with a view to establishing the data for its business plan, Railcoop would have noted in recent weeks, during past discussions with the manufacturers, a significant difference (“of a factor of 3”) between the forecasts communicated and the response to the specifications provided by the manufacturers contacted, in particular due to the condition of the trains and their age.
“Our objective is therefore to bring a first trainset into the workshop as soon as possible in order to have an initial technical analysis and to be able to precisely observe the discrepancies with the maintenance books, with a view to potentially being able to reduce the overall envelope of renovation of the trains which is proposed to us today”, confirms Nicolas Debaisieux.
In addition, certain modifications to the trains, not specified at this stage but which had been discussed during the establishment of the project with the members, would also have a cost, which the cooperative might wish to revise downwards. Not to mention that Railcoop is capitalizing on the fact that an additional period, proposed in the schedule requested for the renovation of its trains, may also allow it to reduce the amount of the overall bill.
Freight service, also a mixed start
Two questions that the rail cooperative will have to address at the same time as another subject: that of the start of its freight line in the Toulouse region, initiated last November, between the north of the pink city and the logistics hub of Toulouse Saint-Jory (Occitanie ).
Planned as a first step in the launch of a wider railway operation, but also as a means of earning initial income, the start of this line which covers 150 kilometers did not however occur as expected.
And it is not on the point of view of the exploitation itself that the situation has sinned, affirms the cooperative, which only claims “three minor incidents that did not lead to a regularity problem” since its launch, but rather in the field of business development that this first freight line can still improve.
“Current volumes are very low”, recognizes Nicolas Debaisieux, who points to a start well below the details made. And this, due to two factors: the lack of diversification of the volumes transported, which for the time being are still considered “too light” for this type of freight (mainly made up of the agri-food sector and some industrial materials), but also and above all, the problem, which has become significant, of the costs of the first and last kilometer on each side of its line.
“We are considering various options for this, such as possibly chartering our own trucks in order to lower the amount of the overall bill, because we are having difficulty at the moment offering an acceptable economic line”, confirms Railcoop, who claims to have also recruited an internal resource, from the road transport sector, to help him reflect on this question.
However, commercial prospects are emerging, particularly with the rise in the cost of diesel to 2 euros, which will have helped to attract new customers.
“We have a new client, whose name will be communicated shortly, and who will start on May 1. This contract alone will already represent 30% of our turnover target for 2022”, adds Nicolas Debaisieux.
However, the deputy general manager Alexandra Debaisieux affirms that there is no concern about the sustainability of the company, despite the delay in ignition announced in particular on Lyon-Bordeaux. “We have sufficient cash to pay the salaries of the 34 jobs we have created and meet our development deadlines”. And Aurélien Hiraux, at the General Confederation of Scop (CG Scop), to abound: “This is a very innovative project, which probably takes a little longer to convince the financial players, but there is no reason why it should not be completed”.
