France’s national state-owned railroad is called the Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF, or “French National Railway Company”). It was established in 1938 and runs all of the nation’s rail traffic, including the TGV, together with that of Monaco on the high-speed rail network in France. Its responsibilities include maintaining and signaling the rail infrastructure as well as operating railway services for both passengers and freight. The total length of the railway network is around 32,000 km (20,000 mi), of which 14,500 km (9,000 km) are electrified and 1,800 km (1,100 miles) are high-speed lines. Every day, about 14,000 trains run.
On the Fortune Global 500 list for 2010, the SNCF was rated 214th globally and 22nd in France. The SNCF Group, which generated revenues of €33.5 billion in 2017, relies heavily on it.
SNCF is the second-busiest rail network operator in the world, the unchallenged leader in high-speed rail in Europe, and a global leader in public transportation. We operate in all facets of transportation and rail operations, and we currently get a third of our income from sources outside of France.
Customers from outside of our typical markets in France will soon make up 50% of our sales, with half of it coming from outside of Europe,thanks to a strong drive to gain overseas markets.
We provide seasoned expertise in rolling stock and infrastructure engineering in addition to managing transport networks. 60% of all driverless metro projects and half of the world’s high-speed rail and metro projects are being worked on by our teams.
These specialties, as well as our aptitude for mixing them, are demonstrated in the talents of our 272,000 employees in 120 countries across the globe.