Three hours max. This is the duration proposed by Valérie Pécresse for the famous opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games scheduled for the Seine on July 26. The LR president of the Ile-de-France region spoke this Tuesday before the Games mobility committee, meeting under the chairmanship of the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune.
Valérie Pécresse, as president of the transport organizing authority Île-de-France Mobilités, first reassured about the capacity of the Ile-de-France metro and RER network to withstand the shock. “Thanks to the transport reinforcement that we are putting in place during the Games, overall + 15% and up to 50% on the lines serving the sites, the transport capacity is everywhere greater than necessary, including taking into account the everyday transportation,” she confirmed.
But the elected official also warned the State and the organizers, present around the table on Tuesday, about the problem of the opening ceremony. “If we fear too much saturation in certain places, the only possibility is to control the schedules of the events,” she warned, citing this opening ceremony which is worrying with its 6 km of quays to be secured and its hundreds thousands of spectators to be funneled into crowded metro stations, on a vacation evening at that.
His solution? “The opening ceremony must begin as early as possible, ideally from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. maximum and its capacity must be controlled at a maximum of 400,000 spectators to allow a good evacuation of spectators at the end because many stations near the Seine will be closed to avoid crowds. The evacuation will last several hours and too many metros at night mean less the next day,” explains Valérie Pécresse. No official gauge has yet been communicated by the State or the organizers.
Safety measures
More generally, the regional president warns about the security of the Olympics. She therefore asks to renew the legislative measures concerning police measures in transport, wishes to keep explosive detection dogs in the RATP and SNCF teams. And it proposes to provide 45,000 free transport cards during the Olympics for the police and military reinforcements who would come from the provinces to secure the event, as well as the provision of 4,500 places in the boarding schools of Ile-de-France high schools for these forces. security.
