Abstract
Public transit is now a major power exercised by regions in France. The regionalization of public transportation. which started in the early 1980s, is analyzed in relation to a new pattern of major players, namely: the central government. local authorities and the French national railway system (SNCF). This pattern has emerged as a compromise, has gradually been worked Out between two rationales: the one advocating a revival of local rail services; and the other, the preservation Of funding by the state and the SNCF. Arising Out of a work of mediation and out of strategies for enlisting reformers (mainly among politicians and from the SNCF) into a coalition, this compromise has bought about an ambiguous consensus among, elected officials from left- and right-wing parties, executives front the SNCF, elected regional officials and representatives of railway workers who do not all share it priori either the same interests or the same conception of the general interest.