| Type | state-owned company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Infrastructure & Tracks Proprietor, State Administrator |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | 92, avenue de France 75013 Paris, France |
| Area served | France |
| Parent | Ministère du Transport |
| Website | www.rff.fr |
Réseau Ferré de France (French: French Rail Network) (RFF), owns and maintains the French national railway network. The trains are operated by SNCF, the national railway company, but due to European Union Directive 91/440, the French government was required to separate train operations from the railway infrastructure.
Unlike other infrastructure managers RFF does not at the moment provide maintenance services or rail traffic control operations which have both been retained by SNCF. Furthermore SNCF has retained the ownership of stations.
The RFF was constituted with SNCF's infrastructure assets, and debts were transferred from the SNCF book to RFF's. Currently RFF is mainly a financial structure focusing on debt refinancing, and it contracts the majority of its infrastructure management to SNCF. In the future, it is expected to be capable of building, maintaining and renovating the French national railway infrastructure on its own. Signalling on RFF infrastructure is implemented and maintained by SNCF.
The creation of RFF was criticised because of the financial options chosen: RFF is subsidised by the French government in order to pay the interest on debt previously borne by the SNCF. SNCF now has a positive operating income and thus enables competition to be opened.
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