Infrastructure fund Antin backs French high-speed rail challenger

Infrastructure fund Antin is backing a new independent high-speed train operator in France, as challengers emerge to the country’s dominant state-backed SNCF amid rising demand for rail travel.

Antin Infrastructure Partners is investing €1bn in Proxima, which launched on Thursday as one of the first start-ups to take advantage of the liberalisation of the country’s rail network.

Proxima, which aims to connect cities across France’s western coast, such as Rennes, Nantes and Bordeaux, with Paris, has signed an initial contract for 12 double-decker trains from French manufacturer Alstom that it will take delivery of in 2027, according to its founders.

France has one of Europe’s most extensive high-speed train networks, alongside Spain, but is one of the last big markets to open up its passenger lines to competition following the liberalisation of Europe’s rail network. The country’s intercity lines have long been monopolised by SNCF services, which have grown increasingly crowded, while ticket prices have risen.

Barriers to entry in the French rail market are high, with steeper levies paid by operators to maintain the lines than in some other European countries. But Proxima is anticipating high demand for its services, which will add more trains to several routes operated by the SNCF.

Proxima’s launch comes at a time when environmental concerns are driving demand for rail travel from both policymakers and consumers. In 2020 Air France stopped flying domestic routes for which there were rail or coach alternatives that took less than two and a half hours, as part of measures agreed with the French government.

Changing working habits since the Covid-19 pandemic are also fuelling the need for high-speed commuter connections, according to Rachel Picard, a former SCNF executive who is one of Proxima’s co-founders. 

“There are new lifestyles emerging. You can live in Nantes and work in Paris,” Picard said. 

France’s passenger rail market opened up to private operators after the EU introduced rules to encourage more competition across the bloc’s network, measures that came into effect in 2019.

Italian operator Trenitalia and Spain’s Renfe began to offer their own passenger services in France last year but are more focused on international connections to Milan or Barcelona from the French mainland than journeys within the country. Several companies are also now exploring competing services to Eurostar’s monopoly on the cross-channel service between Britain and France.

However, Europe’s train market remains costly and technically challenging, not least due to the safety and compatibility authorisations that new services must secure.

Antin’s chair and chief executive Alain Rauscher said Proxima — which may operate under a different brand name — was ordering trains from Alstom, which already supplies SNCF, to help speed up those approvals.

Antin, which was listed on the Paris stock market in 2021, already has investments in rail, including train leasing company Porterbrook in Britain. It will initially fund the Proxima investment through its own funds but is also lining up a pool of banks for financing.

Proxima will add 10mn seats a year to the routes it operates on, in a high-speed rail market in France that used by a record 122mn passengers last year. 

“We’re coming to add a new offering alongside the SNCF, knowing that we have one common adversary — not so much airplanes, but cars,” said Picard. The added capacity should eventually help ticket prices come down, she added.

“It will . . . bring new breathing space and availability into the market and that will be good for passengers,” Picard said.