2024-08-10 09:30:07
GermanyFrequent and punctual trains and metros, rare incidents dealt with quickly, a large staff providing information and support to the 4 million daily users… The inhabitants of Île-de-France did not recognize their public transport during the Olympics. The following two weeks miraculously saw a period of recurring dysfunction, arousing discontent and all the bad omens were thwarted.
The daring challenge of organizing the first Olympic Games was not only entirely achievable by carbon-free public transport, by bicycle or on foot, and not only provided smooth service to the numerous competition venues scattered across Paris and its region, but has also provided evidence of the ability of the network and its agents to ensure fast, reliable and even enjoyable travel through planned efforts and appropriate means. Even better, the Paris Olympics provided a delightful spectacle for a great city that had once been largely free of the influence and nuisance of automobile traffic.
Left-handed“ Development This is so obvious and so rare, boasted by Valerie Pécresse, President of the Ile-de-France region responsible for transport, that we must learn from it, so that this “magic bracket” of the Olympic Games does not increase the scope of a brief moment of elegance in Paris. Millions of daily transport users in the Ile-de-France region have the right to the same transport benefits as spectators of the Olympic Games.
Sustainable recruitment
Of course, the transport legacy of Paris 2024 is important: in addition to the extension of metro line 14 and RER line E, the Games were an opportunity to fill the shortage of drivers after the coronavirus pandemic – permanently recruited – to improve safety through better coordination between police departments and to speed up procedures in the event of incidents. As for the employees, encouraged by the bonuses, they showed an excellent mobilization, highlighted by the disappearance of absenteeism. Not to forget the wonderful display of the export sector during the Games, represented by the perfect French public transport.
But the interrupted work will resume on August 12, and the staff will be occupied for maintenance, so during the Olympics, the prize money will stop and the “purple vests” will be disbanded. The great success boasted by elected officials is possible only because of the deployment of extraordinary resources. Because, even with the Olympic audience, the network is still not so busy in the summer.
However, these two weeks of practical and punctual buses, metros and trains cannot be without a future. The next government must confirm and increase state investment in public transport. The commitment made by then Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne in February 2023 to invest 100 billion euros in rail by 2040 and the plan to increase the metropolitan RER must be revived; the accessibility of the Paris metro “Within ten years” For people with disabilities, M insistsI Pécresse, must have financial support.
Public transport is a concrete symbol of the respect of public authorities for their citizens and an important political issue. The Olympics demonstrated the possibility of reconciliation between the French and them. Everything must be done to expand this virtuous circle and provide France with Olympic-level transport.
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