It’s hardly believable. However essential to an aging line, the works of the RER B scheduled for the weekend of May 21 will be postponed by decision of the government so that… an Indochina concert can take place without problem, reveals the world this Monday. A decision that will lead to the rescheduling of the next projects, which are planned up to three years in advance, which will cost several hundred thousand euros.
Postpone the event, relocate or reduce the gauge
The subject arose more precisely in January. And the question would have been decided by the Minister of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, himself. A few weeks ago, in a letter addressed to Luc Lallemand, the boss of the SNCF network, the minister “desired to attract specifically” the attention of the latter on an Indochina concert at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis. Djebbari asks that, that evening, traffic on the RER be fully maintained. And therefore that the planned catenary regeneration works be postponed. The SNCF seems to have complied with this government injunction – the minister’s entourage says it has the support of Matignon.
More than half of the spectators go to the Stade de France by public transport, the vast majority by RER B or D. The question of around thirty concerts and events taking place there has therefore been raised for several months, explains the world. And if the matches of the French rugby team have been exempted, other shows have had to be postponed again. The Indochine concert, originally scheduled for June 2021, has been postponed to May 21. The artists who had dates scheduled for the evenings when work was included in the program nevertheless had several choices, details the evening daily: postpone the event, relocate it or reduce the gauge. But, for this concert, none of these three solutions was adopted.
Calendar already disrupted by the Charles-de-Gaulle Express
This postponement of the work comes at a time when the agendas had already been disrupted by the creation of the Charles-de-Gaulle Express. Controversial line because reserved for tourists and the wealthy wishing to reach Paris from Roissy airport, it cannot be put into service for the 2024 Olympic Games, contrary to what was planned. But the State wanted it to be in spite of everything from 2026, which implies many substantial interventions rescheduled by SNCF Réseau at night and on weekends on the RER B in 2022 and 2023. And makes the schedule even more complex sensitive and essential work on the daily network undermined by the health crisis.
The announcement of the maintenance of the Indochina concert risks questioning the 9 million daily users of Ile-de-France transport. In particular the million people who take the RER B every day: this is one of the lines most disrupted by breakdowns, in particular because of its aging network. Ile-de-France Mobilités and the government seemed to want to tackle the problem head-on by promising massive works and investments. But the inconvenience of users is well worth a concert in Indochina. And if they are not happy, they can always ask the moon.