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[quote user="beaulieu"] [quote user="Sam1"] [quote user="beaulieu"]  The French, German, and Spanish, Intercity passenger businesses run a positive operating ratio. In all three countries regional services are operated by separate subsidiaries, so no cross subsidization. The only uncertainty is the pension fund, and how you apportion it between the divisions. Conversely it is the freight subsidiaries that have a hard time showing a profit in Europe. In France they operate La Poste TGVs, I believe there are two and a half, postal TGVs. The trainsets can be split in half for maintenance, so the extra half set allows two sets to cover the service. [/quote] Yep, in France the SNFC (total system) covers its operating expenses.  I could only find the company's consolidate financial statements, which include a variety of transport activities, including trucking, airlines, etc.  So I would be interested to know how you determined that the German, French, and Spanish intercity passenger railways, especially the TGV or other high speed services, cover their operating costs.  In France the trains, including the TGV, are operated by the SNFC (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français).  In 1997 the French Government set up another state company, the RFF (Réseau Ferré de France), to own and manage the railways.  From the outset the RFF assumed responsibility for the debt that had been on the operating company's books.  It amounted to FRF 134.2 billion.  Had the debt remained on SNFC's books, its financial picture would have been bleak as Amtrak's.  RFF is subsidised by the French government to pay the interest on debt previously borne by the SNCF, pay-off the debt, and absorb the massive depreciation associated with the system.  The creation of the RFF structure was dismissed by political opponents and some economists as a move to liberalise French railways at the taxpayer's expense. Another criticism is that RFF's policy of stopping losses is that it hampers the investment capacities of the French rail system. [/quote]  The majority of the debt, comes from two sources, the purchase of the private railway companies at nationalization. and additions to the network. The acronym for the French Railway is SNCF (I see you finally got it right near the end of your post). RFF was created in response to legislation from the EU in Brussels requiring the separation of the Infrastructure from the Operations. In typical perverse French fashion, they took the worst ideas from all the other European Countries and put them together to create RFF. Not that RFF doesn't try, they have some good people there. RFF does not manage the railway, they manage the network, but they are forced to contract with SNCF for most maintenance, all dispatching, station maintenance, security, etc. Only new build construction is carried out by private contractors. It is too early for the detailed 2008 Annual Report to appear, you will have to be satisfied with the 2007 version for now. <A href="http://medias.sncf.com/resources/en_EN/medias/MD0305_20070803/template/RF/2007/rf2007.pdf">SNCF 2007 Annual Report </A> If you are interested the 2007 Annual Report for Deutsche Bahn is also available <A href="http://www.deutschebahn.com/site/shared/en/file__attachements/reports/annual__report__2007.pdf">2007 DB Annual Report </A> [/quote] Thanks for the references.  How do you know that RFF has some good people?  Have you worked with them?
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