Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) announced on Thursday February 9 that it would compensate holders of Navigo passes, for amounts ranging from 37.60 euros to 112.80 euros, depending on users, due to the deterioration of service observed during the last months.
The year 2022 was complicated in Parisian transport, had already recognized IDFM and the RATP in mid-January. After the most intense period of the Covid-19 epidemic, IDFM had revised the frequency of the metros downwards from – 4 to – 31% depending on the line, in order to adapt the offer to lower attendance.
But in the fall of 2022, the use of the Paris metros has returned to 87% of its pre-pandemic level. At the same time, the frequency during peak hours did not return to normal. And users of crowded metros are struggling to understand why the service is deteriorating, while the price of the Navigo pass is increasing.
To measure the extent of the problem, we compared the data published by the RATP for the year 2022 and 2019. Result: waiting times have increased for all lines, and in each month of the year. Line 12 is systematically (except in October, within one second) at the top of the lines whose average frequency has decreased the most: the wait between two trains increased by 59 seconds in 2022 compared to 2019. Line 6 and line 3 completes the podium of lines with the lowest frequency: respectively + 44 seconds and + 29 seconds between trains, compared to 2019.
Find all the details of the increase in waiting time during peak hours, for each line, in the graph below, inspired by a article published on Franceinfo.
The detailed analysis, for each metro line, of the frequencies carried out in 2022, makes it possible to identify those which are problematic for users. Some lines (13, 12, 7, 7 bis, 6, 3 and 3 bis) only very partially complied with the frequency defined by IDFM for each of them. Worse, in December 2022, the situation worsened on several metro lines, with punctuality below 80%:
- line 12: its punctuality was 80.7% in November, it rose to 69.8% in December, i.e. one minute and fifty-two seconds more between two metros than in 2019,
- line 10: from 95%, its punctuality fell to 74% in December due to numerous “operating difficulties”,
- line 8: from 83.2% in November to 79.5% in December.
Others are improving from the 96.5% punctuality rate: lines 2, 5, 9 and 11. The automated lines, 1 and 14, have both a frequency and excellent punctuality.