the prefect of Ile-de-France anticipates “worrying tensions” on the transport network – Libération

The Ile-de-France prefecture expects a risk of saturation on the metros and RER. A controversy which also swelled this Thursday after a misattributed quote by “Le Monde” indicating the study of “Olympic confinement”.

A little less than eight months before the Paris Games, the puzzle of transporting spectators is straining the authorities. Despite the government’s promises, according to which Paris “will be ready” to transport the approximately 10 million foreigners who came specially for the event, the authorities fear saturation of the Parisian network.

In a letter addressed to the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune, Marc Guillaume, the prefect of Ile-de-France, evokes “worrying tensions”, with “saturation thresholds which will be regularly exceeded”, while the region waits between 500,000 and 1 million spectators per day during the period according to RATP and IDFM. Enough to encourage the authorities to work on several avenues to relieve congestion on the network during the fortnight.

During the day of this Thursday, a quote from Marc Guillaume relayed in Le Monde indicating that “the prefect of the Ile-de-France region does not rule out the hypothesis of the establishment of an Olympic confinement” highlighted stir social networks. This is in reality a phrase misattributed by Le Monde: the expression is used in a sarcastic manner by a journalist from Le Canard chainé in Wednesday’s edition, an expression that Le Monde had initially attributed by mistake to the prefect and which the evening newspaper has since removed from its article. The prefecture also firmly denies this to Libération: “The term is false, the idea is false”, nor will there “be any obligation to telework or a ban on travel”, specifies. we still.

Which does not prevent the prefecture from taking the situation seriously. “The idea for the moment would be to speak from January with players in the economic world, to explain to them carefully that on a given day in a given place, the use of public transport may be complicated, and therefore their possibility of establishing teleworking at these times or asking their employees to take alternative routes, develops the prefecture of Ile-de-France. The idea is not to put Ile-de-France under lockdown, but perhaps to encourage more walking and cycling over this period.”

“Great difficulty”

The Minister for Transport, Clément Beaune also assured Le Canard Enchaîné that a certain number of “festive events which were planned by the committee” organizing the Games “will be reduced or spread out” in order not to cause a “overloading of the public transport network”.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) may have been “reassured” by the French authorities about the transportation of 10 million spectators during the Olympic fortnight, but logistics remain “a challenge” after the concerns expressed by the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo End of november. The authorities, starting with Valérie Pécresse and the Minister for Transport Clément Beaune, did not mince their words in criticizing the exit of the mayor of Paris.

But with five metro lines and three RERs “in great difficulty” in October, Ile-de-France Mobilités sounded the alarm this week. Valérie Pécresse, president of IDFM, “reminds RATP of the need to get back on track and succeed in running all the trains ordered”, firmly indicated the transport organizing authority. Jean Castex, CEO of RATP, “had nevertheless committed to doing so this summer”, underlines IDFM. In the metro, five lines show punctuality of less than 85% during peak hours. No need for the announcement of a hypothetical “Olympic confinement” to worry the Ile-de-France residents.