Paris (AFP)
The number of people "gradually rises" in public transport in the Ile-de-France region, but in the future teleworking will have a lasting impact, eventually offset by new transport offers, RATP CEO Catherine Guillouard said on Saturday.
"During the week, two-thirds of the rail network have recovered the pre-Covid traffic", while "at the weekend, there are more people" with 70% of the pre-pandemic attendance on the metro during the week -end and 85% on the RER, she said on France Inter.
"On the surface network, we are already on weekdays at three-quarters of the traffic that we normally had before the pandemic and at weekends we are at 90%", she added.
"So it goes up gradually, with a lag," observed Ms. Guillouard, while health rules are easing in France with in particular the end of 100% teleworking since June 9.
But "we can clearly see that telework is still very present" and for the future "there will be an impact of telework, that's for sure": "we have modeled about two days on average of telework for all world ", which could represent -5 to -7% of attendance.
But "as at the same time we renew the offer, we put more offer, we extend the metro and tram lines, in fact on the horizon of 24 months that should be compensated", according to her.
The boss of the RATP cited the example of line 14 of the Paris metro, extended north in December, and where "attendance has increased by 15 to 20%".
© 2021 AFP