why there are concerns about the transport offer during the Olympics

2023-11-24 07:50:49

Fifteen million visitors are expected for the Olympic Games (JO), from July 26 to August 11, and Paralympic Games, from August 28 to September 8, and the organizing committee has focused everything on public transport and soft mobility, like the bicycle, to transport them to the events. However, now the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is issuing a warning on Wednesday, November 22: there is “two things we’re not going to be ready for” : ” transportation “ et “sheltering homeless people” fixe.

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The elected official designated the future RER E station at Porte Maillot, as a “places where transport will not be ready because there will not be the number of trains and the frequency”. Those responsible in his eyes? The Ile-de-France region, which has authority over Ile-de-France transport, “the government a little too”. “But we do all this together, so I feel involved too”she added.

Short sentences which immediately triggered the anger of the Minister Delegate in charge of Transport, Clément Beaune, but also of the President of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, who, as such, also chairs Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the transport organizing authority, responsible for anticipating, ordering and coordinating the offer for the Olympics and Paralympic Games. For them, Anne Hidalgo is trying to open a counter-fire to the controversy surrounding her recent trip, half-professional, half-private, to Tahiti. There is nothing new or worrying, in their eyes, in the progress of the preparations.

Train delivery delays

Both also highlighted the lack of attendance of the mayor of Paris “to the eight strategic committees on transport to prepare” Games. “Thank you to her for solving the problem of traffic jams in Paris to allow the circulation of buses! »quipped Mme Pécresse. So much for the form, but what about the substance?

In the entourage of the president of the Ile-de-France region, as in that of Clément Beaune, we recognize that “the timetable for preparations is constrained” and the step is high: “Eight hundred thousand people to be welcomed per day is unheard of in France”, those around the minister emphasize. But the strategic committee responsible for steering transport follows each step carefully.

On Anne Hidalgo’s first criticism, the putting into circulation of the RER E, also called Eole, between Porte Maillot and La Défense, the committee effectively confirmed that Alstom could not deliver the trains in time for them to run at full frequency, but we will still see these RER NG, a showcase of French technology, running over a reduced time slot. To transport spectators to the Accor Arena in La Défense (swimming events) or to Nanterre, the transport plan relies on the RER A and line L. In passing, IDFM tackles ” Paris city hall [qui] has still not paid the bill for Eole’s additional costs, unlike the other financiers. She still owes 25 million euros for 2023”.

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