Covid-19: Île-de-France Mobilités suspends payments to RATP and SNCF

Europe 1 with AFP 4:57 p.m., September 28, 2021

The standoff is launched between the Île-de-France region and the State on the issue of transport.

By the voice of its dedicated ministry, the government indicates Tuesday that the regional authority Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) "is failing in its duties" after announcing, Monday, to suspend its payments to the RATP and the SNCF.

At issue: the lack of agreement between the two parties on compensation for losses linked to Covid-19.

1.3 billion euros claimed from the State

Authority chaired by Valérie Pécresse, IDFM claims 1.3 billion euros from the state and announced Monday the suspension of its payments to the two public groups, for lack of money.

Every month, it pays around 400 million euros to the RATP and 300 million to the SNCF, to run trains, RER, metro, trams, and buses in the capital region.

"We are not aware of a budgetary impossibility for IDFM to honor these payments", noted the ministry, which notes that "the State (the) has already massively supported (e)".

The regional transport authority is relying on the "review clause" included in the protocol signed with the State in September 2020, at the end of a first standoff after having already suspended payments for two months.

Valérie Pécresse wants subsidies instead of repayable advances

The text provides for a "reassessment of the situation in the event of further loss of resources attributable to the health situation". However, IDFM is asking for the current year to compensate for losses of around 1.3 billion euros corresponding, for around one billion, to the decline in tariff revenue and for around 300 million euros, to that of payments. mobility, a tax on the payroll of companies and administrations.

For the 2020 losses, IDFM had obtained from the State 1.45 billion euros in reimbursable advance and 150 million in subsidy. This year, Valérie Pécresse is essentially asking for subsidies and not repayable advances. "We are still in discussions with the State. (...) We hope that it will be released very quickly," Laurent Probst, the managing director of IDFM, told AFP on Monday.

"We arrive at the time, in September, when the cash flow is too short," he noted.

"We can no longer pay the operators."

As these are operating expenses, IDFM cannot go into debt to cover them.

"Valérie Pécresse has still not told us what she intended to do on the pricing" of public transport in Ile-de-France to achieve "medium-term balance" of her finances, the ministry also noted.