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SNCF

France (Publisher)

The SNCF (Société nationale des chemins de fer français; “National Society of French railways” or “French National Railway Corporation”) is France’s national state-owned railway company and manages the rail traffic in France and the Principality of Monaco. The SNCF was formed in 1938 with the nationalization of France's main railway companies, the Chemins de fer. These were the Chemins de fer de l’Est (Eastern Railways); Chemins de fer de l’État (State Railways), which had merged in 1908 with the Chemins de fer de l’Ouest (Western Railways); Chemin de fer du Nord (Northern Railways); Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (Paris, Lyon and Mediterranean Railways); Chemins de fer de Paris à Orléans et du Midi (Paris, Orléans, and Southern Railways), which was 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 (Alsace-Lorraine Railways); and Syndicats du Chemin de fer de Grande Ceinture et de Petite Ceinture (Great and Little Belt Railways). The French state originally had 51% ownership of SNCF and invested large amounts of public subsidies into the system. Today, SNCF is wholly owned by the French state.