Posted on 05/25/2018 10:57:29 AM PDT by Olog-hai
The French government has agreed to absorb €35 billion in debt from the state railway SNCF, a top union official said Friday, as it seeks an end to nearly two months of strikes.
Luc Berille, the head of the UNSA union, said that the state had proposed taking on €35 billion ($41 billion) of the SNCF’s €46 billion of debt, starting with €25 billion as soon as 2020.
“The prime minister was specific,” Berille said after talks with premier Edouard Philippe, adding that the government would increase infrastructure investment by €200 million a year to reach an annual total of €3.8 billion. […]
Absorbing the debt has been a key demand from unions, but it looked unlikely to to break the deadlock, with the hardline CGT union saying it would continue the strikes.
Earlier this week, the results of a poll organized by unions showed that 95 percent of respondents rejected the government’s proposed rail reforms, the CGT announced on Wednesday. […]
Unions also oppose the transformation of the SNCF into a joint-stock company whose shares would be held by the state — which they see as a first step to privatization — and want the state to take on the bulk of its legacy debt. …
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.fr ...
That’s OK, they’ll just have the European Central Bank buy the bonds in their next quarterly round of Quantitative Easing.
Free printed money - problem solved!
Is there anything the French won’t subsidize? They give Airbus unfair advantage, which leads many American airlines to use them over Boeing and other US companies.
If they can afford $41 billion dollars they ought to spend it on defense.
I thought all those Euro railroads were swell and a model for the USA if we would only get smarter!/s
$41B will buy a lot of white flags.
You mean passenger rail is not profitable?
Who’d a thunk it?
Well, if the government would get out of the transportation business and just focus on security, private passenger rail might have a fighting chance. By similar measures, air travel isn’t profitable.
And glass-bottom boats to review the fleet with.
Sacre bleu. I’m going on strike. Hopefully they’ll absorb my mtg. Merci beaucoup macron.
Shut the railroads down, fire everybody and sell assets off to for profit companies.
Rioters to be given whiffs of grapeshot.
“...They give Airbus unfair advantage, which leads many American airlines to use them over Boeing and other US companies.”
Airbus.
Where the computer regards the pilot as merely a voting member.
You heard it here first!
Socialism works. This is how it works.
wait, i are cornfused... what does "The French government has agreed to absorb €35 billion in debt from the state railway SNCF" mean? if it is a STATE railway, is it not already funded by the gooberment???
All that US revenue from the Paris Accords they were counting on . . .
Retirement payment for 16 live crossing guard flagmen at every road crossing (4 per six hour shift) does run into money.
It’s funded by taxpayers.
Woodrow Wilson tried that sort of thing with the USRA. Then later on, we got stuck with Amtrak and Conrail; at least Conrail’s back in the private sector now, but under two oversized nigh-monopolistic railroad companies (CSX and Norfolk Southern).
“Well, if the government would get out of the transportation business and just focus on security, private passenger rail might have a fighting chance. By similar measures, air travel isn’t profitable.”
Maybe wishing will make it profitable...
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