The Automobile and Mass Transit Systems: renewing the debate

The Martinand Report on the SNCF has provoked quite a stir among industrial actors and agents, transport system operators, as well as mass transit companies and automobile constructors. Despite what seems to be an increase in popularity of "auto-phobic" trends which began in the early 1990s with their criticism of the hegemonic "automobile society" and the call for more socially-acceptable, safe, and less polluting solutions, the report from the economic affairs director of the Ministry of Equipment seems to indicate all the contrary. The report now presents an original position coming from public authorities, torn between a variety of pressure groups whose interests are sometimes contradictory: how can transportation be maintained in rural areas where the automobile and truck transportation are, by far, much more economical. One must cease to consider very light transport service as being a public service responsibility since the SNCF has, for quite some time now, ceased to provide this type of service. Rail transportation must be profitable, and commercially viable when faced with competition from other means of transport. The SNCF must not be anything else but a multi-modal and inter-modal transportation service. And certainly not a national public service !

The Martinand Report reveals a series of obvious points, up to now camouflaged by political interests :

In rural and peripheral urban zones, automobile and truck transportation of both people and merchandise offer undeniable advantages. The cost of so-called "light" rail transportation is too much of a burden for the local community.
For interurban transportation, relying only on the TGV is also questionable : once deregulation of the airline service is accomplished, provoking a decrease in the cost of flying, how will the costs of rail transportation infrastructures be absorbed ?

Here lies an unavoidable reality : the automobile seems destined to greater and more widespread use because of its many advantages, including mobility and the fact of uninterrupted and unhampered transport. This is the case in the United States where ecological movements do not seek to attack the "pro-auto" lobby per se, but rather to work towards limiting as much as possible automobile and truck transportation nuisances in a society which, in any case, can no longer function without the automobile. It is time to realize that the automobile can not be replaced, but that its technology can and must be improved so as to no longer pollute, and to constitute a silent and safe product. And it will be !

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