French toller Cofiroute offering romantic weekend getaway prizes in transponder promotion

French tollroad operator Cofiroute is running a lottery with "romantic weekend" getaways and zero tolls as prizes for those who sign up for an electronic toll transponder in a 4 week drive this winter. Telepeage and 'libert-t' are the transponder account brandnames.

Says the ad: "Jouez... et gagnez peut être un week-end romantique!!!" (Their exclamation marks, not ours)

First prize is a romantic weekend for two at one of fifty de luxe hotels, value E399.90 ($600 @E1=$1.50)

Second prize is a boat cruise for 2 on the River Seine, value E190 ($285)

Third prize is tickets to the Lido cabaret value E200 ($300)

Fourth prize is bouquets of roses, value E47 ($70).

The offer runs Feb 11 to Mar 10.

see http://www.a2enliberte.com/

No word on whether Gov Jon Corzine has this in mind for the Jersey pikes under proposed new management.

BACKGROUND: Cofiroute operates 928km (577 miles) of toll motorway, about 12% of the total French network, mostly to the southwest and west of Paris. Their 58 tolling points do about 100m transactions/year, an average 274k/day. Formed by a group of construction companies in 1970 to bid on concessions, they were the first investor owned toller at a time when the other tollers were at least majority owned by government entities, but run pretty much as bhusinesses.

Cofiroute is now a subsidiary of VINCI Concessions, part of the the VINCI Group. VINCI also has the major share in the recently privatized ASF with 2,562km (1,592 miles) of tollway, the largest motorway operator in France as swell as ESCOTA in Spain and the Trans Jamaican Highway for a total of 4,300km (2670 miles) of tollroads. Revenue last financial year was $6.4b (@E1=$1.50 on E4292m).

Cofiroute in the US was the experienced operator in the group that sponsored 91 Express Lanes in the early 1990s, and presently has the operating contract there from Orange County, California. It is part of the group managing the MN/I-394 toll lanes west of downtown Minneapolis.

Cofiroute's largest project is the E1.5b ($2.3b) A86 West, which will fill the missing gap in an outer beltway around Paris with a 10.5km (6.5 mile) doubledecked toll tunnel under a 70 year concession.

see http://www.cofirouteusa.com http://www.cofiroute.fr/ (French only) http://www.vinci.com/vinci.nsf/en/index.htm

TGVs compete with wine, dance and gambling

Facing private sector competion under EU rules the state owned SCNF which runs France's TGV (Trains a Grande Vitesse) highspeed passenger trains is introducing Zen (quiet) and Zap (buzzing) cars, the Economist mag reports. Zap cars will have booze, dancing and perhaps gambling for night owls and carousers on routes Paris to Nice, Marseilles and Biarritz, while the Zen cars will be for the sleepers and readers.

SCNF turns a handsome profit for the French state (E695m, $1,024m last year). Unlike the American Amtrak which is firmly commited to delivering 'pork' benefits to congressional constituences and to labor unions, the French railroad is run like a business. Now it is sharpening up its act to meet private sector competition from 2010, when private trains will be competing on the same lines.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-02-25