As every foreign motorist familiar with
France will know, intercity motorways are certainly no free lunch. In this
respect, they are a notable exception (water services being another) to the
rule that public services are always provided by the state. The vast
majority of the country’s intercity motorways are toll roads, conceded by the
state to private companies. Given the general distrust in France of capitalism
in general and private companies in particular, the relationship between the French
motoring public and the companies is not always a happy one – and politicians
do little to make it happier - on the contrary.
The economic case for toll motorways is
fairly clear-cut. The infrastructure can either be paid for by the state out of
general taxation or it can be paid for by users, or by a mixture of the two. Both
models exist in Europe. In France, the toll model seems amply justified
inasmuch as not all French taxpayers use the motorways but many foreigners who
flock to France’s beaches and ski slopes throughout the year, and who are not
French taxpayers, do. Initially, when most of the motorway network was built,
the state charged the tolls but between 2002 and 2006, the government of the day
decided to privatise the networks in order to raise much needed revenue and
recoup its initial costs. After a European-wide call for tenders, the
concessions were awarded to a number of companies who purchased the
infrastructure for a period of 30, 40 or 50 years, funded it with debt, undertook
by contract to maintain and develop it and, in return, collect the tolls. Unlike
the SNCF (see my previous post) the concession holders are private companies
who have to make enough revenue to pay off their debt, cover their own
operating costs and keep their shareholders happy by paying regular dividends.
Given fairly strict regulation of the tolls
the companies can charge and the rate at which they can increase them, it is perhaps
surprising that the issue has generated so much controversy. Motorists regularly
complain about price increases and politicians are often quick to jump to
their defence, accusing the concession holders of gouging consumers, conveniently
forgetting that they cannot increase tolls more than their regulatory obligations
allow. The peak of such demagogy was reached when the former Minister for the
Environment, Ségolène Royal, always quick to spot an issue from which to make
political capital on the cheap, demanded that motorways should be free of
charge at weekends. Various reports, in particular one from the very serious national
court of auditors, have concluded that, given the profits made by the
concession holders since privatisation, the state sold its motorways at much
too low a price. Some politicians have even suggested that they should be taken
back into public ownership. In the regular battles of figures that hit the media
headlines, nobody, it seems, has ever raised more fundamental issues like whether
the state would not be better advised to stick to those tasks that only it can
properly fulfil, like security, defence and justice, nor whether the concession
holders have not quite simply done a far better job of managing the assets they
purchased than the state would ever have done or been able to do.
To any regular user of the motorways
between Paris and western France like myself, it is clear that there has been
no lack of investment since privatisation. Long stretches of motorway have been
upgraded from two to three-lane highways, the roadways are regularly resurfaced
and rest areas have been remodelled to make them far more consumer-friendly
than they were. Toll technology has been modernised too: badges are now widely
available, making it increasingly possible not to stop and queue at tollgates.
And the vehicles have kept coming. Motorways are the routes of choice for the
vast majority when they embark on a long car journey, not to speak of
commercial haulage firms. During weekends at holiday time, 24-hour radio
stations open their news bulletins with congestion warnings and report
regularly on the length of tailbacks.
Despite the additional cost involved, many families eat lunch, dinner or
snacks at motorway restaurants and cafés. The attractive picnic areas are always
full at meal times.
Users, it would seem, continue to complain
all the way to the tollgates!