Editing SNCF (section)

==History==
[[File:BB67484-Amiens.JPG|thumb|[[SNCF Class BB 67400]] diesel locomotive at [[Amiens station]]]]
SNCF was formed in 1938 with the [[nationalisation]] of France's main railway companies (''Chemin de fer'', literally, 'way of iron', means railway). These were the:
* [[Chemins de fer de l'Est]] (Est, ''Eastern Railways'')
* [[Chemins de fer de l'État]] (État, ''State Railways''; merged in 1908 with the [[Chemins de fer de l'Ouest]], ''Western Railways'')
* [[Chemins de fer du Nord]] (Nord, ''Northern Railways'')
* [[Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée]] (PLM, ''Paris, Lyon and Mediterranean Railways'')
* [[Chemins de fer de Paris à Orléans et du Midi]] (''Paris, Orléans and Southern Railways''; PO-Midi, formed in 1934 from the merger of the [[Chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans]] and the [[Chemins de fer du Midi]])
* [[Administration des chemins de fer d'Alsace et de Lorraine]] (AL, ''Alsace-Lorraine Railways'')
* Syndicats du Chemin de fer de [[Grande Ceinture line|Grande Ceinture]] et de [[Petite Ceinture]] (''Great and Small Belt Railways'') in Paris and its suburbs.

The French state originally took 51% ownership of SNCF and invested large amounts of public subsidies into the system. Today, SNCF is wholly owned by the French state.

===World War II===
{{See also|French resistance#Sabotage|Holocaust train#France}}
Following the 1940 Armistice and until August 1944, SNCF was requisitioned for the transport of German armed forces and armaments. The invading German troops were responsible for the destruction of nearly 350 French railway bridges and tunnels. According to differing estimates, SNCF surrendered between 125,000 and 213,000 wagons and 1,000–2,000 locomotives.<ref name="Jones1984">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Joseph |url=https://archive.org/details/politicsoftransp0000jone |title=The Politics of Transport in Twentieth-Century France |publisher=McGill Queens University Press |year=1984 |isbn=0773504281 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/politicsoftransp0000jone/page/n134 115]–116 |quote=SNCF railway transporting german troops. |access-date=1 November 2012 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Mierzejewski2000">{{Cite book |last=Mierzejewski |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gY_o6_7TP98C&q=SNCF+railway+transporting+german+troops&pg=PA83 |title=The Most Valuable Asset of the Reich: A History of the German National Railway Volume 2, 1933–1945 |publisher=The university of North Carolina Press |year=2000 |isbn=0807825743 |page=84 |access-date=1 November 2012 |archive-date=27 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527003241/https://books.google.com/books?id=gY_o6_7TP98C&q=SNCF+railway+transporting+german+troops&pg=PA83#v=snippet&q=SNCF%20railway%20transporting%20german%20troops&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Gare de Carpentras - quai.JPG|thumb|A SNCF [[TER Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur]] train in [[Carpentras]]]]

France's railway infrastructure and rolling stocks were a target for the [[French Resistance]] aimed at disrupting and fighting the German occupying forces.<ref name="RECITS">{{Cite journal |last=Ribeill |first=Georges |date=2002–2003 |title=Obstétrique de guerre: Le cas de la SNCF (1939–1945) |url=http://www.utbm.fr/media/pem/LivreNum_LesCahiersDeRECITSn2.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Les Cahiers de Recits, Laboratoire de Recherche sur les Choix Industriels, Technologiques et Scientifiques |language=fr |location=Belfort-Montbéliard |publisher=Université de Technologie Belfort-Montbéliard |volume=2 |pages=49–61 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150501043038/http://www.utbm.fr/media/pem/LivreNum_LesCahiersDeRECITSn2.pdf |archive-date=1 May 2015 |access-date=9 January 2012 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="Christofferson">{{Cite book |last1=Christofferson |first1=Thomas |title=France during World War II: From Defeat to Liberation |last2=Christofferson |first2=Michael |publisher=Fordham University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8232-2563-7 |location=New York}}</ref> This allowed SNCF employees to perform many [[Resistance during World War II|acts of resistance]],<ref name="Durand">{{Cite book |last=Durand |first=Paul |title=La SNCF pendant la guerre, sa résistance à l'occupant |publisher=Presses Universitaires de France |year=1968 |location=Paris}}</ref> including the formation of the [[Résistance-Fer]] movement in 1943. Nearly 1,700 SNCF railway workers were killed or deported for resisting [[Nazi]] orders.<ref name="figaro-shoah-regrets">{{Cite news |last=Lombard |first=Marie-Amélie |date=25 January 2011 |title=Shoah : les "regrets" de la SNCF |work=Le Figaro |location=France |url=http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2011/01/24/01016-20110124ARTFIG00734-shoah-les-regrets-de-la-sncf.php |access-date=31 January 2010 |archive-date=26 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110126182837/http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2011/01/24/01016-20110124ARTFIG00734-shoah-les-regrets-de-la-sncf.php |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="nytimes2011" /> 150 Résistance-Fer agents were shot for their acts of resistance, 500 of them were deported. Half of those deported died in concentration camps.<ref name="Ribeill">{{Cite journal |last=Ribeill |first=Georges |year=2006 |title=Résistance-Fer, du " réseau " à l'association |journal=Revue d'histoire des chemins de fer |volume=34 |pages=53–73 |doi=10.4000/rhcf.534 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

German occupying forces in France also requisitioned SNCF to transport nearly 77,000 Jews and other Holocaust victims to Nazi [[extermination camp]]s.<ref name="Shaver">{{Cite news |last=Shaver |first=Katherine |date=7 July 2010 |title=Holocaust group faults VRE contract |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/06/AR2010070605169.html |access-date=7 July 2010 |issn=0740-5421 |archive-date=31 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331071237/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/06/AR2010070605169.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Bankier2011">{{Cite book |last=Marrus |first=Michael R. |title=Holocaust and Justice |publisher=Berghahn Books |year=2011 |isbn=978-9-65308-353-0 |editor-last=Bankier |editor-first=David |chapter=Chapter 12 The Case of the French Railways and the Deportation of Jews in 1944 |editor-last2=Michman |editor-first2=Dan}}</ref> These deportations have been the subject of historical controversy and lawsuits (such as the [[Alain Lipietz#Court challenge to SNCF|Lipietz case]]) in France as well as in the United States (where subsidiary [[Keolis]] is a transportation contractor) [[Holocaust train#France 2|to the present day]].<ref name="nytimes2011">{{Cite news |last=Baume |first=Maïa De La |date=25 January 2011 |title=French Railway Formally Apologizes to Holocaust Victims |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/world/europe/26france.html |access-date=26 October 2012 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=30 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330165147/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/world/europe/26france.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=CBC News |date=7 June 2006 |title=French railway must pay for transporting family to Nazis |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/french-railway-must-pay-for-transporting-family-to-nazis-1.575679 |access-date=9 June 2006 |archive-date=29 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029205941/http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/french-railway-must-pay-for-transporting-family-to-nazis-1.575679 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1992 SNCF commissioned French academics to write a history of SNCF activities during World War II.  The resultant report was published in 1996.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Faciliter la recherche historique|url=http://39-45.sncf.com/content.php?id=2&deploy=2|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130202172513/http://39-45.sncf.com/content.php?id=2&deploy=2|archive-date=2 February 2013|publisher=SNCF|language=FR|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |agency=Associated Press |date=20 May 2011 |title=U.S. bill requires French rail company to disclose 'truth' of its Holocaust role |work=Haaretz |url=http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/u-s-bill-requires-french-rail-company-to-disclose-truth-of-its-holocaust-role-1.362955 |access-date=28 September 2012 |archive-date=19 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219114159/http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/u-s-bill-requires-french-rail-company-to-disclose-truth-of-its-holocaust-role-1.362955 |url-status=live }}</ref>

More recently, some sources have claimed that SNCF billed Nazi-occupied France for third-class tickets for Holocaust victims transported to extermination camps,<ref name="Gaurdian06">{{Cite news |last=Chrisafis |first=Angelique |date=7 June 2006 |title=French state and SNCF guilty of collusion in deporting Jews |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jun/07/france.topstories3 |access-date=16 December 2016 |archive-date=27 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527003229/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jun/07/france.topstories3 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="BBC07">{{Cite news |date=27 March 2007 |title=French railways win WWII appeal |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6499227.stm |access-date=7 November 2013 |archive-date=10 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110034322/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6499227.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> although passengers were transported in [[cattle car]]s.<ref name="FirstPost">{{Cite news |date=15 November 2010 |title=SNCF airs Holocaust regret as it bids for Florida rail &#124; News &#124; The Week UK |publisher=Thefirstpost.co.uk |url=http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/9909/sncf-airs-holocaust-regret-it-bids-florida-rail |access-date=24 October 2013 |archive-date=29 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029203429/http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/9909/sncf-airs-holocaust-regret-it-bids-florida-rail |url-status=live }}</ref> Other sources have reported that after the [[liberation of France]] SNCF continued to seek payment for transporting Holocaust victims to Germany.<ref name="Gaurdian06" /><ref name="NYTimes03">{{Cite news |last=Riding |first=Alan |date=20 March 2003 |title=Nazis' Human Cargo Now Haunts French Railway |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/20/international/europe/20PARI.html |access-date=7 November 2013 |archive-date=14 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131114133028/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/20/international/europe/20PARI.html |url-status=live }}</ref>  However, historian [[Michael Marrus]] has written that claims that SNCF billed for third-class tickets and continued to seek payment after the war ended were made as part of a legal case brought against SNCF, and did not match with historians' understanding of what happened. Marrus argues that SNCF had no margin of maneuver during the German occupation and that the actions of SNCF employees were not ideologically motivated.<ref name="Bankier2011" /> According to [[Serge and Beate Klarsfeld|Serge Klarsfeld]], president of the organization [[Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France]], SNCF was forced by German and Vichy authorities to cooperate in providing transport for French Jews to the border and did not make any profit from this transport.<ref name="Klarsfeld2012">{{Cite web |last=Serge Klarsfeld |date=26 June 2012 |title=Analysis of Statements Made During the June 20, 2012 Hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee of the Judiciary |url=http://www.memorialdelashoah.com/attachments/article/77/Serge_Klarsfeld_sen_judiciary_comm_sncf_washington_july_2012.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202221852/http://www.memorialdelashoah.com/attachments/article/77/Serge_Klarsfeld_sen_judiciary_comm_sncf_washington_july_2012.pdf |archive-date=2 December 2013 |access-date=19 November 2013 |website=Memorial de la Shoah |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

In December 2014, SNCF agreed to pay up to $60 million worth of compensation to Holocaust survivors in the United States.<ref>{{Cite news|last=DeYoung|first=Karen|date=2014-12-05|title=France to compensate American survivors of Holocaust|language=en-US|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/france-to-compensate-american-holocaust-survivors/2014/12/05/9fd176c6-7c94-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html|access-date=2021-08-03|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=18 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518153145/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/france-to-compensate-american-holocaust-survivors/2014/12/05/9fd176c6-7c94-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> It corresponds to approximately $100,000 per survivor.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2014-12-05|title=Pour le rôle de la SNCF dans la Shoah, Paris va verser 100 000 euros à chaque déporté américain|language=fr|work=Le Monde.fr|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2014/12/05/etats-unis-paris-va-indemniser-les-victimes-de-la-shoah-transportees-par-la-sncf_4535530_3222.html|access-date=2021-08-03|archive-date=17 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517142430/https://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2014/12/05/etats-unis-paris-va-indemniser-les-victimes-de-la-shoah-transportees-par-la-sncf_4535530_3222.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Modern era===
[[File:Logo of SNCF (2003).svg|thumb|Logo as of 2003]]
In the early 2000s, SNCF sought to get a contract from the state of [[California High-Speed Rail|California for a bullet train]] project between Los Angeles and San Francisco. SNCF recommended that the train take the most direct route between the two locations to reduce the complexity and cost of the project, but the SNCF's recommendations were cast aside by California politicians who wanted to divert the train through various communities, raising the cost and complexity of the project, as well as the expected travel time. SNCF pulled out of the project in 2011 and went to Morocco to help the country construct a bullet train service. By 2018, Morocco's bullet train started service while the California bullet train project was not close to being operational in 2022, with some saying that the project would never be completed.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Vartabedian |first=Ralph |date=2022-10-09 |title=How California's Bullet Train Went Off the Rails |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/us/california-high-speed-rail-politics.html |access-date=2022-10-09 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=9 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221009102347/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/us/california-high-speed-rail-politics.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In May 2014, the company had discovered that 2,000 new trains they ordered at a cost of 15 billion euros are too wide for many of France's regional platforms. Construction work has started to reconfigure them.<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 May 2014 |title=French red faces over trains that are 'too wide' |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27497727 |access-date=21 July 2018 |archive-date=12 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180912005321/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27497727 |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 1 January 2015, [[Réseau Ferré de France|Réseau ferré de France]] (RFF) merged with [[SNCF Infra]] and the Direction de la circulation ferroviaire (DCF) and became ''[[SNCF#Divisions|SNCF Réseau]]'', the operational assets of SNCF became ''[[SNCF Mobilités]]'', and both groups were placed under the control of SNCF.

Jean-Pierre Farandou, the head of the state-owned railway operator, SNCF informed on 26 July 2024 that its high-speed rail network [[Eurostar]] suffered from multiple instances of coordinated [[sabotage]], causing significant disruptions to train services. The incident occurred just hours before the opening ceremony of the [[2024 Summer Olympics|Olympics]], which was considered a high-risk event. The affected lines were located in the western, northern, and eastern regions of [[France]], impacting not only domestic trains but also those travelling to neighboring [[Belgium]] and [[London]] via the [[Channel Tunnel]]. It was expected that roughly 800,000 travellers were impacted because of this arson attack on French railway networks.<ref name="malicious-acts of vandalism">{{Cite news |last=World Desk|first=TOI|date=2024-07-26 |title=Several french train lines hit by malicious acts disrupting traffic ahead of olympics |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/several-french-train-lines-hit-by-malicious-acts-disrupting-traffic-ahead-of-olympics/articleshow/112036279.cms |access-date=2024-07-26 |work=Times Of India |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name="Arson attack">{{Cite news |last=Vidalon|first= Dominique|date=2024-07-26 |title=Arson attacks hit France's train network hours before Olympic ceremony |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/vandals-target-frances-high-speed-rail-network-olympics-get-underway-2024-07-26/|access-date=2024-07-26 |work=Reuters|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name="French rail network hit">{{Cite news |last=Tessier|first= Benoît|date=2024-07-26 |title=French rail network hit by arson attacks before Olympics opening ceremony |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jul/26/vandals-target-french-rail-network-olympics-opening-ceremony|access-date=2024-07-26 |work=The Guardian|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name="Massive attack">{{Cite news |last=ROSSIGNOL|first= PASCAL |date=2024-07-26 |title='Massive attack' on fast train network|url=https://www.dw.com/en/france-massive-attack-on-fast-train-network/a-69771241|access-date=2024-07-26 |work=The DW|language=en-GB}}</ref>

===Design===
[[File:BB15048-Amiens.JPG|thumb|A "broken nose" style of SNCF electric locomotive ([[SNCF Class BB 15000|BB 15000]]) designed by [[Paul Arzens]]]]
The industrial designer [[Paul Arzens]] styled many of SNCF's locomotives from the 1940s until the 1970s. A particularly distinctive type is the "broken nose" style of electric and diesel locomotives.