Conference on the future of highways: don't get ripped off again

The operation could be called "Enough stupid concessions," although its official name, "Ambition France Transports," gives nothing away. Prime Minister François Bayrou is traveling to Marseille this Monday, May 5, to launch a centralized plan for transport financing by 2040. Rail recovery, new RER lines, infrastructure regeneration, river freight—while the operation's ambitions are not lacking, its most explosive financial stake is certainly the decision concerning motorway concessions , one of the most costly failures of state governance in the 21st century. Many politicians eyeing the next presidential election, from Dominique de Villepin to Bruno Le Maire, will long continue to drag around this 2006 ball and chain, the privatization of the French motorway network at a knockdown price in unalterable concessions, foolishly granted for thirty years. Virtually all the watchdogs of the French economy – the Court of Auditors, a parliamentary commission of inquiry, the General Inspectorate of Finance, a Senate oversight committee, the Competition Authority, and others – have since criticized, sometimes violently, this financial operation , perceived as an irresponsible fire sale of the family jewels . The concessions that made the fortunes of the shareholders of Vinci, Eiffage, and Albertis, the main operators, are finally coming to an end between 2031 and 2036. The plan launched today by Bayrou will have to decide between a new concession model, which is difficult to envisage, a return to the mixed economy model of 1973 , or outright nationalization, which would align the French model with that of most of our neighbors. By then, the operators must, at the end of the contract, return the infrastructure to the State "in good condition," having made all the investments expected of them. The first ambition of the "Ambition France Transports" plan must therefore be to avoid being taken for a ride twice.