The French Railway Industries Association (FIF)
The FIF numbers some 300 member companies representing the whole spectrum of railway equipment industries, ranging from rolling-stock builders to engineering firms, railway equipment manufacturers to track & signalling industries, designing to testing. In short, the entire industrial railway manufacturing chain is present within the Association.
In 2018, French railway manufacturing industries posted a turnover of current €4 billion (€ 2.7 billion on the domestic market and €1.3 billion overseas). Workforce: approximately 30,000 people.
Our Strategy
FIF’s strategy mainly aims to play a role on the one hand, in implementing improvement concerning the regulatory and technical environment, and on the other hand, the business conditions of the Profession.
This strategy can be broken down into 5 major orientations:
- Promoting the railway industry and transport as one of the solutions to major society concerns – Enhancing the various within the Profession and their results/performance with the media, government, national and international authorities; Highlighting the key-role of railway transport in reviving the economy and in the sustainable development policy; Highlighting the important results of European co-operation on the major railway files (mutual recognition, ERTMS [European Rail Traffic Management System], Railway Testing Centre, etc.)
- Playing a part in competitiveness of the French and European railway industry – Speeding up European regulatory harmonisation; Making the European regulation, standardisation and certification procedures most effective and more compliant with competitiveness requirements of the railway sector (standardisation, simplification, reduction of costs and deadlines, etc.); Strengthening the industrial position in steering French normative work
- Helping companies in their positioning with regard to their customers/partners or competitors. Worldwide presence – Helping companies in developing their activities towards target countries; Helping companies become very familiar with Asian industrial strategies. On the national level – Developing an FIF / SNCF / RFF joint strategic thinking on the following topics; Helping in developing competitiveness of the national railway system; Developing synergies with i-trans and other trade organisations (FNTP, FIEEC (Federation of Electrical, Electronic and Communications Industries), etc.) and railway associations (AIF (Railway Industries Association), etc.)
- Expanding existing railway training from the viewpoint of current and future human resource needs within the railway industry – Active participation in defining the guidelines of the railway Master’s degree and provide information about its development; Promoting railway training adapted to the future needs of manufacturers of the sector; Raising awareness of research-teachers from laboratory facilities relevant to the railway.
- Aligning, clarifying and enhancing the status of FIF initiatives – Developing an annual action plan consistent with the Strategic Plan; Highlighting everyday initiatives led by the FIF.
