The president of Ile-de-France Mobilités Valérie Pécresse wants to “take power in transport” in the region, she explains in an interview with the specialized letter Mobilettre, attacking the monopolistic practices of SNCF Réseau and the RATP.
We must make transport a priority, judges the former presidential candidate LR, also president of the regional council.
I can’t understand why we don’t have a mobility policy at the national level. The absence of a full-time Minister of Transport is a bad indicator, she tackles.
A president at the national level should make a massive plan for infrastructure, especially for rail infrastructure, from high speed to local services, judges the elected, calling for a reform of road management and SNCF Réseau.
According to her, this branch of the SNCF is a monopolistic infrastructure manager who is drowned under the mass of work to be carried out, who no longer has the human resources or the necessary means, who is almost systematically late and over budget.
More generally, Valrie Pcresse regrets the lack of global reflection on transport. The protection of public monopolies is incredible, she criticizes, calling on Prime Minister Lisabeth Borne, who was Minister of Transport and CEO of RATP.
In her stronghold of Ile-de-France, she says she is ready to take power in matters of transport because no one does.
My main problem is the failure to respect the contracts signed, she underlines, asking for penalties, both for the operators – SNCF and RATP, above all – and for the suppliers of rolling stock – Alstom, in particular – in the event failure or late delivery.
The competition must be a triple winner, in quality of service, in price and in social conditions, argues Valrie Pcresse, while the unions fear that their working conditions will deteriorate.
It even wants to speed up the opening up to competition, but is demanding that Ile-de-France Mobilits take over the management of the infrastructures of the lines open to other operators (which in particular must go to the RATP for the metro, including the new lines of the Grand Paris Express).
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The manager also attacks the RATP, which maintains monopolistic practices in Ile-de-France while seeking profits to invest abroad and distribute dividends to the state.
In reality, the margins required by the RATP are extra costs for the Navigo pass! (the subscription in Ile-de-France, editor’s note), she launches, judging that if it is a public monopoly, then it would be better to be managed by IDFM.
At this stage I do not want to increase the prices of the Navigo pass at all, notes Ms. Pcresse again, acknowledging that her position is untenable in the difficult cause of inflation.
She is calling for state aid: The option we have proposed to the government is to reduce the VAT from 10% to 5.5%, which would allow us to freeze prices and absorb inflation without decrease in resources.
For the moment, we have no answer, she notes.