Our missions and expertise

SNCF Réseau at the heart of the rail system

With more than 50,000 employees and thousands of partners throughout France, we are developing rail services on 28,000 km of lines. Our missions? To maintain, modernise, develop and operate the national rail network. As such, we play a central role in the French and European railway system. 

Our job: rail infrastructure manager

All our activities contribute to developing rail traffic: marketing access to the network, orchestrating train services, maintaining and modernising facilities, developing the range of services on offer, etc. Our teams are thus adapting the network to the growing needs for mobility and to the challenges of the ecological transition. 

We manage the 2nd densest rail network in the world!

Today, the French rail network comprises 28,000 km of lines and serves more than 8,000 municipalities. Traffic is heavy here, and is set to become even heavier over the next few years.

  • 15,000

    commercial trains operating daily on the network

  • 5

    million passengers daily

  • 300,000

    tonnes of goods transported every day

Understanding the rail network

Our historical expertise

The management of the national rail network is based on four core areas of expertise.

  • Marketing the network

    We guarantee all our customers fair access to the national rail network.

  • Operating the network

    We orchestrate the running of passenger and freight trains on all lines.

  • The works on the network

    We carry out or have carried out maintenance, regeneration, modernisation and development works on railway infrastructure.

  • Engineering and projects

    We design and implement projects that contribute to the maintenance, operation and development of the network of tomorrow.

A real balancing act!

Our challenge is to reconcile multiple issues: running as many trains as possible while ensuring safety and quality of service on the train paths sold - customer priority! - while taking into account the works required to maintain and renovate the network. 

Our missions in the service of the railway system

In addition to our core business expertise, we have other responsibilities.

  • Crisis management

    We coordinate crisis management throughout the SNCF group.

  • Rail accessibility

    We steer the accessibility policy for the entire rail system.

    Find out more

  • The stations

    We oversee the management of passenger stations through our subsidiary SNCF Gares & Connexions.

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Expertise recognised beyond our borders

Few companies can boast so much expertise. Our historic know-how is now recognised the world over and is helping to make SNCF Réseau a key player in the industrial landscape.  

For a number of years now, we have been working with project owners and infrastructure managers around the world on their rail projects, providing consultancy services to improve safety and industrial performance, as well as support with the implementation of new technologies.  

We also offer these services to French manufacturers and SNCF Group entities (Keolis, Seter, SNCF Fret, SNCF Gares & Connexions) for their international projects.   

Our international customers

Our efforts to boost Europe's railways

Safe, environmentally friendly and a great way of linking different regions, the train has all the assets needed to become the preferred mode of transport in Europe.

We are convinced that the rail sector has a bright future in Europe. But for this to happen, infrastructure managers need to work together. We are working closely with our European counterparts to ensure the interoperability of our equipment, facilities and signalling systems. Our teams also work together to facilitate operations and optimise investments on cross-border lines.  

Our ambition? To develop a European offering that contributes to the development of rail transport on a continental scale, in line with the European strategy for sustainable and smart mobility.  

SNCF Réseau’s European action