Exasperated by the repeated delays on his metro line, a young Parisian has created a Twitter account that compiles the difficulties of the RATP network.
Roméo Philipps, 22, is an engineer data. A regular user of line 8 of the Paris metro, he has suffered for several months from the degradation of service on the RATP transport network. Delays, crowded trains, “operating difficulties»… Like many Ile-de-France residents, Romeo is overwhelmed. But, swallowing his anger, he decides to do useful work, relying on his engineering skills. “I wanted to have an overview, clear and synthetic, of the disturbances encountered on the whole network“.
At the end of November, he set up a system of “bots», automated software, which compiles the traffic info messages broadcast in real time on the RATP website. Formatted, the data obtained makes it possible to calculate the average disruption time on each metro and RER line. Roméo decides to make his infographics public by creating a dedicated Twitter account, @METROQualite. Driven by the general chaos of Parisian transport at the end of the year, the page quickly gained a few thousand subscribers.
Read alsoJean Castex plays appeasement at the RATP
It must be said that the results are staggering. 1425 hours of disturbances in total since the end of November on the entire Ile-de-France metro network! Over the period, the total durations of disturbances noted are maddening, exceeding the 100 hour mark for three lines, and even that of 200 hours for the 12. The engineer also classifies the incident descriptions put forward by the RATP. Unsurprisingly, we find the daily refrain of “operating difficulties» (238), «forgotten luggage(124) and other daily festivities.
While the balance sheet is generally poor, some lines stand out with a record disruption rate. The youngster was thus able to see that his daily line was indeed in the list of the most capricious lines of the Paris metro network, with 4.3 hours of disruption on average per day. But there is better: line 12, which well deserves its title of “worst lineof the intramural network. As for the RER, the situation is even more catastrophic, difficulties being common on the part of the network operated by the RATP.
Read alsoThe Castex method to restore the RATP’s balance
“The data that I compile comes from the RATP, but the report that I draw from it is independent“, wishes to specify the young man. As surprising as it may seem, the RATP does not publish such reports allowing the real quality of the service provided to be assessed. Île-de-France Mobilité does produce a monthly punctuality report covering all the Ile-de-France lines, but the austere presentation of the document is enough to put off the most motivated readers.
SEE ALSO – Paris metro: a driver from the RATP explains the malfunctions
More transparency
“I wanted to create a tool that was simple, readable and transparent for the general public,” explains the young Parisian. Bet won: since the creation of his page, Romeo has received many messages from Internet users praising the usefulness of his approach. Among his subscribers, there is also a certain Guillaume Rozier, tipped to become the new data adviser to Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée. This young champion of the data made a name for itself during the health crisis thanks to its CovidTracker and VaccinTracker applications: using available public data, it published maps, figures and graphs, thus beating state services. “I am happy that Guillaume Rozier is following @METROQualite. I subscribe to the same approach as him, namely a useful use of open dataconfides Romeo. In both cases, the citizens’ initiative precedes the institutional response.
But the young engineer’s tool did not take long to arouse the interest of public management. Even though the compiled results are far from brilliant, Roméo reveals that he was contacted by RATP officials, seduced by the initiative: “The RATP knows that it lacks transparency vis-à-vis its users, which partly fuels the anger of Parisians“, he analyzes. The operator offers to help the young man refine his statistics by providing additional data.
With or without the help of the RATP, the young engineer intends to improve his statement in the weeks to come: “Iis thinking of transforming the Twitter page into a real website, on which the information will be even more readable by users. Filters, for example, can be added to isolate punctuality statistics by date and by line“.
Read alsoFailures at the RATP: the mistigri of policies
Above all, we hope that by then the situation will have normalized on the Ile-de-France transport front. For its part, the company claims to be aware of the difficulties encountered on a daily basis by travelers. During an Île-de-France Mobilité press conference on Friday, the president of the RATP, Jean Castex, promised an improvement in traffic by April 2023. The former prime minister presented hisexcuses» to users, recognizing a «degradationof the service offered by the group in recent months. The representative of the board wishes “improve things as quickly as possible», in particular by strengthening information and communication vis-à-vis travellers.
SEE ALSO – RATP: the CGT announces a new strike on Thursday