Endless wait, buses canceled… Ile-de-France residents have been faced with an untenable situation in recent weeks. A disorder caused in particular by the lack of drivers at the RATP. Less than two years from the 2024 Paris Olympics, concern reigns. Anne Hidalgo is all the more moved since on January 1, 2025 the network must open up to competition, which she thinks might add a little more clutter.
For this reason, the mayor (PS) of Paris sent a letter to Élisabeth Borne, the Prime Minister, on Friday December 16. In this missive, which we have obtained, she clearly asks that “the opening to competition of the bus network be re-examined or, at the very least, postponed well beyond January 1, 2025”.
To justify her remarks, Anne Hidalgo begins by recalling that “the Ile-de-France public transport network represents a unique infrastructure in the world, which, as you know, is experiencing strong tensions. Also, when approaching Jeux, I would like to alert you to the major risks posed by the implementation of competition for the bus network on the transport offer and on the organization of this major event. »
Why ? Because, anticipates Anne Hidalgo, this competition will “disrupt well upstream the organization and relations between Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), operators and partner communities”.
Risk of deteriorating working conditions
She writes in particular that, “the competitive bidding operations are regularly accompanied by social movements and strikes, all the more disrupting the supply of transport. However, according to the calendar, the operators who will be awarded the various lots will obviously be known well before the Olympic Games, to enable them to prepare. “We cannot afford to disrupt social dialogue, nor run the risk of a deterioration in working conditions, even though the return to a 100% offer is still not effective, that the RATP is experiencing difficulties on more than 150 bus lines and that there is still a shortage of 1,500 drivers. »
Anne Hidalgo also points out that this major change “implies the performance of a number of operations, such as the recovery of property assigned to the RATP, which will seriously disrupt IDFM and the RATP in the preparation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games”.
In the longer term, the mayor of Paris does not seem thrilled anyway. She fears a “fragmentation of the offer between different operators”. “The division into 12 lots of Paris and the inner suburbs, strongly contested by local elected officials, will only complicate the management of public transport within the metropolitan area. »
No change in schedule in sight at IDFM
On the side of Ile-de-France Mobilités, the authority in charge of transport, we are surprised by this request for a change in the calendar: “Under the regional presidency of Jean-Paul Huchon (PS), the City of Paris has always been in favor of competition. How would the RATP’s monopoly on buses be a guarantee of quality of service? We are ready for it. Paris, like most cities in France, will set up a public service delegation, as it already does for the distribution of water, for example. »
Officially, the authority chaired by Valérie Pécresse (LR) does not intend to postpone the steps. “We are an administration, all deadlines are regulated by law. To be ready on January 1, 2025, the allocation of lots must be done several months in advance”.
Asked this fall regarding a possible postponement of the end of the monopoly, the leader of a competitor of the RATP did not mince his words. “The principle of opening up networks to competition has been in place since 2009! It is surprising that the RATP did not prepare earlier… In any case, we are ready for it”.
However, the risk of social unrest is real. Marc Pélissier, the president of the FNAUT-IDF user association expressed his concern last September in the Parisian. “Experience in the outer suburbs shows that you have to take the time to do things gradually. Switching the entire RATP network on January 1, 2025 is huge, he said. The whole had to be divided into 12 lots. It seems impossible to us that things go well if we want to do everything in such a short time. In addition, if the schedule is respected, the allocation of the first batches to new operators would take place in June 2024, just before the Olympic Games”. And to conclude: “Is it really the right time? A postponement of at least a few weeks seemed to him to be more prudent.
