The level of traffic is in the order of 80-85% of normal in this re-entry, announced Keolis Bordeaux Métropole.
The operator of the Bordeaux transport network hopes to regain 90% of its customers by the end of the year, but makes no prognosis as to a total return to normal.
At the same time, he must face an increase in incivility which has exploded since the start of the Covid-19 crisis.
Towards a return to normal? The TBM transport network (tram and bus in the metropolis of Bordeaux) hopes to recover “90%” of its nominal traffic for 2019 as quickly as possible, Pierrick Poirier, director of Keolis Bordeaux Métropole, announced on Tuesday. "If we get there before the end of this year we will be satisfied," added the director of the network. This level is of the order of "80-85%" in this re-entry.
The year 2020, described as “annus horribilis” for the transport network by Pierrick Poirier, recorded a 35% drop in attendance compared to 2019 with 115.5 million trips all modes combined.
“This year, we are at + 27% compared to 2020, which means that in 2021 we have recovered more than half of the traffic lost.
It is very encouraging to see that the clientele is responding, even though we have not returned to our level of two years ago.
At the same time, there is no reduction in the transport offer, precisely to allow travel in the best conditions.
"
"More than 90% of our subscribers have remained loyal to the network"
“What is very encouraging, continues the director of Keolis, is that more than 90% of our subscribers have remained loyal to the network. We are more faced with a decline in individual mobility than an escape from network customers. And then, the activity resumes, we see it in this return. Now it is difficult to say when we will have a full return to normalcy. Some speak in months, others in years… ”
Vice-president of Bordeaux Métropole in charge of transport, Béatrice de François also underlines “that some companies have not taken over entirely face-to-face, and there are still a large number of users who carry out teleworking. also counts in attendance ”in this re-entry.
The elected recalls that the crisis has generated a loss of revenue of around 32 million euros for the metropolis, with -25 million euros in passenger revenue and -7 million euros in the transport payment of companies.
"We could vote in the metropolitan council to increase the price of transport up to 3%, last year we did not do it and we will not do it this year either", assured the vice-president.
"We intervene more than before to evacuate people from our vehicles"
Another consequence of the crisis: an increase in incivility incidents was observed on the TBM network. “They have tripled in 2020 compared to 2019 and this trend continues,” reveals Pierrick Poirier. "We can not do nothing but suffer, which is why we have strengthened the presence of staff in the field, and our response time has thus fallen from ten minutes eighteen months ago, to seven minutes today. . "
However, the network is “above all faced with uncivil behavior, more than physical attacks, which are generally stable.
These are feet on the benches, small altercations or alcoholic behavior.
We intervene more than before to evacuate people from our vehicles.
We consider that this is a sustainable phenomenon to which the network has already adapted, and to which we will continue to adapt.
But this phenomenon is neither specific to the transport network, nor to the Bordeaux conurbation.
It's national.
"
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