The president of Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) Valérie Pécresse summoned the RATP to quickly take “the necessary measures” to restore proper regularity in the Paris metro, in a letter consulted Thursday by AFP. “The performance of several metro lines (in particular lines 3, 6, 8, 11, 12 and 13) has deteriorated significantly since the start of the school year, with regularities below 91% during rush hour, which is good below your contractual obligations with regard to Ile-de-France Mobilités and therefore unacceptable”, wrote Valérie Pécresse, judging “legitimate” the exasperation of the travelers.
A shortage of drivers
“I ask you to take the necessary measures to remedy the situation quickly and without delay, because we owe quality service to travelers”, she demanded in her letter addressed to the acting director general of RATP Jean-Yves. Leclercq, and dated Wednesday. “I expect from you an emergency remediation plan for the situation and a timetable to overcome the difficulties of these 6 lines,” she said. The latest regularity figures available for the Paris metro, those of September, are poor on lines 3, 4, 6, 8 and especially 11, 12 and 13, due in particular to a shortage of drivers.
“We do not yet have the figures for October, but we sense that they are of the same ilk,” IDFM director general Laurent Probst told AFP on Wednesday. As for the difficulties of line 4, not mentioned by Valérie Pécresse, they are due to its current automation, according to him. “I am particularly concerned about the spread of the lack of drivers to the metro network, when you told us that these difficulties concerned exclusively the bus network – on which 25% of the contractual service is not carried out”, noted Valérie Pécresse, who had already sent a similar letter for the buses in September.
A slightly reduced transport offer
“The Ile-de-France Region is ready to support you to facilitate the recruitment of drivers, which I remind you is your responsibility”, added the elected official, also president of the regional council. “It is crucial that the RATP can ensure a regularity greater than or equal to the contractual objective, namely 96.5%”, in particular on lines 8, 11 and 12 where traffic resumes, she underlined, noting that his services were going to order “supply reinforcements”. Transport provision has been reduced slightly in recent months to save money, with ridership still significantly below pre-pandemic levels.
“But a reinforcement of the offer will be ineffective if the RATP does not succeed in producing the offer ordered by Ile-de-France Mobilités”, insisted Valérie Pécresse.