French railway operators

France has Western Europe's largest rail market, but it opened up slowly. Long-distance passenger services were only fully liberalised in 2020, and regional services have been put out to tender step by step since 2019. That is why the SNCF group still dominates today, while private operators have gained a foothold mainly in freight and on individual long-distance routes.

For working out who runs a train, this means: the SNCF logo tells you little about which company is actually running it. Fret SNCF, Captrain, Europorte and VFLI are independent companies with their own licences, some inside the group, some outside it.

The vehicles carry a twelve-digit European vehicle number whose keeper marking is more reliable than any livery. If you want to identify the operator, read this marking – not the logo on the front.