FRANCE: North & East of Paris

SANEF last year garnered $660m toll revenues, a 4.2% increase on 1995, on its 1172km network of 5 toll motorways in the north and east (the NE in the name) of France. One of those pikes is the A1, Autoroute du Nord, one of France’s busiest, running 170km north from Paris toward Lille, a large industrial city and transport hub. Lille (pop 1.4m) is the gateway to Belgium and across it to the port of Antwerp and to Rotterdam in Holland, as well as to northern Germany via Brussels. South of Lille SANEF’s A1 is intersected by parallel southeast-northwest trending mwys (1) the SANEF A-26 Troyes/Reims/Calais pike 340km in length, a bypass of the Paris area which provides a connection to the Channel Tunnel from southern Germany, Switzerland and Italy and (2) close to the border the untolled A25 to Dunkerque.

Last year the A1 averaged 56k vehs/day of which 14k/day were heavy trucks, making it one of Europe’s premier truck routes. The A1 has a 42km spur northeastward toward the E42 in southern Belgium which heads toward Koln and the Ruhr.

The east-west A4, SANEF’s longest mwy at 475km, links Paris with Strasbourg, providing a connection to central Germany near Frankfurt. It shares a stretch of roadway with the SE-NW running A26 near Reims. Major new developments are occurring around the end of the A16, SANEF’s second north-heading radial out of Paris. Until recently it petered out at Amiens 106km from the fringe of the Paris area, but new A16 motorway is being progressively opened all along the Channel coast to Boulogne-sur-mer, from where there is an existing untolled mwy to Calais and along the Belgian coast. This will provide a second mwy-standard route between the Paris region and the English channel ports and the Channel Tunnel. Construction is also under way on a new east-west mwy, the 130km A29, Neufchatel-en-Bray to San-Quentin, which along with the southern section of the the A26 will form part of a wide sweeping bypass of the Paris region linking the east of France and central Germany to the Normandy coast and the nation’s premier port at Le Havre. Further off plans call for a northeast heading spur 120km called A24 beginning at the A16 at Amiens passing the northern fringe of Lille into Belgium, effectively duplicating the A2, and providing a direct Lille-Le Havre mwy.

Traffic on the A1 has been static the past couple of years, mainly because of the improvement of alternate roads. The A1 is also famous as the site for the world’s longest running congestion pricing program or “toll modulation” as SANEF calls it in translation. April 1992 they began higher tolls Sunday afternoons to moderate weekend drive traffic (see TRnl#8 Oct 96 p7 “Un Concession pour les Earlyrisers”). SANEF was also the first French pike to get electronic tolling (called ‘Telepeage’ with the e-toll lanes “Voie Rapide”) over the whole of its network. Like most other European e-toll systems however it is expensive and after some years only 80k e-tags are in use, and contribute 11% of transactions. SANEF is trying variable speed limits, displayed on variable message signs in an effort to anticipate backups and prevent concertina effects when road overloading begins. The SANEF network is 978km 2x2 lanes, 194km 2x3 lanes, and it has 112 interchanges and 58 service areas. Posted speed limits are generally 130km/hr. Attendants at its toll plazas accept a variety of foreign currencies and credit cards can be self-swiped or swiped by an attendant.

The tollster supports a highway advisory radio service which broadcasts not only in French, but (very civilized) in English also. SANEF is one of 6 semi-public corporations which together with the investor-owned Cofiroute run most of the 7700km of pikes in France. SANEF is active internationally, claiming earnings in a dozen countries. Under a reorganization ordered by the government last year the toll roads are being consolidated into three regional units.

Takeover of SAPN: SANEF will become senior partner of SAPN (Soc des Autoroutes Paris-Normandy), the pike with concessions immediately west of SANEF territory. SAPN’s main property is the A13/A14, which extends from central Paris a bit north of westward 228km down the Seine Valley past Rouen to near Le Havre at the mouth of the river, then along the Normandy coast to Caen. SAPR recently began operating the first stretch of the A29 — west of Le Havre and has a further stretch of this road under construction to link with the A29 construction in SANEF territory. Another section of A28 is planned from the A13 at Rouen connecting the SAPN network into Cofiroute’s system in the Rhone valley to the southwest. That link will allow traffic between western France and the Channel to avoid the using the mwys radial to Paris.

SAPN grossed $160m last year on its 304km of pike (224km 2x2, 79km 2x3, 1km 2x4) on which it has 39 interchanges. SAPN has e-tags called “FAST”. (Contact SANEF 33 1 4438 6222, SAPN 33 1 4753 3787)