The Régie des transports métropolitains (RTM) announced on Wednesday September 27 the closure from October 23 of the two lines of the Marseille metro on weekday evenings, from Monday to Thursday from 9:30 p.m., for a probable duration of two years. The Marseille metro transports some 320,000 people per day, for a population of 860,000 inhabitants, but attendance over the last three hours of service represents only 1.4% of daily journeys (around 4,500 passengers), according to Hervé Beccaria, director of the RTM.
“It’s an accepted choice for better mobility. It is not ideal to close the metro, but it is a technical and security requirement”declared Catherine Pila, president of the RTM, during a hastily organized press conference after the revelation, Tuesday news from the local investigative site Marsactu.
The automation of the two metro lines, for which Alstom will supply the new trains, represents a total budget of some 600 million euros, and is part of the “Marseille en grand” plan launched by Emmanuel Macron to make up for the city’s delays. During these closures, five evenings from October 23 then from Monday to Thursday from November 6, the last trains will leave the terminals at 9:30 p.m. and a free replacement bus service will be set up, with one passage every the ten minutes.
“Curfew in Marseille”
The public transport network of France’s second city, whose territory is particularly large (240 square kilometers), is not managed by the municipality, led by a left-wing coalition, but by the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis. , led by a right-wing majority. The municipality denounced the decision and complained of not having been informed of it beforehand, which Catherine Pila contested.
“It’s completely anachronistic, we have the impression that the metropolis is putting a curfew on Marseille”declared the mobility assistant, Audrey Gatian, estimating that in other cities similar works were “better sequenced with much less impact”.
“Announcing to the whole world that in a city where we are developing attractiveness, the metro will stop at 9:30 p.m., it is unacceptable, we will pay the price”estimated for his part Laurent Lhardit, deputy for the economy. “Economic activities, restaurants, bars, cultural activities, how will they function when they are in full activity at 9:30 p.m.? “, he added.
The usual service will nevertheless be restored during certain periods such as the end-of-year holidays or the 2024 Olympic Games, of which Marseille will host the sailing events, or occasionally for football matches, during the week for example. It’s about “an extremely complex migration” and operations “necessary to receive validation from the State” to the entry into service of new equipment, underlined Edouard Vagogne, project director for Alstom. Automated operation is planned for summer 2026 on one line and summer 2027 on the second.