Tuesday, we learned that the Grand Paris Express would not be 100% operational in 2030, and this Wednesday that Anne Hidalgo requests the review, or the postponement, of the opening to competition of the bus network, scheduled for early 2025 The socialist mayor of Paris wrote a letter to this effect to Elisabeth Borne, the Prime Minister, arguing that a postponement should "allow the Olympic and Paralympic Games [of 2024] to be held in the best conditions".

While the Ile-de-France transport network is currently experiencing "strong tensions", Anne Hidalgo wants to "alert to the major risks posed by the implementation of competition in the bus network on the transport offer and on the organization of this great event", in this letter addressed to the one who was Minister of Transport.



In particular, it points to the risk of "social movements and strikes" which can accompany a process of competition.

The opening to competition of the bus network in Paris and in the inner suburbs, which results from a European regulation, has been planned since a law of 2009.

The specter of a strike during the Olympics worries

Currently, the Ile-de-France bus network is struggling, in particular due to a shortage of drivers.

Endless waits and crowded buses, especially in the Paris suburbs, put users in difficulty for their daily journeys.

"We cannot afford to disrupt social dialogue or run the risk of a deterioration in working conditions, even though the return to a 100% offer is still not effective, while the RATP is experiencing difficulties on more than 150 bus lines and that 1,500 drivers are still missing,” she wrote.

The specter of a strike during the Olympics, under the cameras of the whole world, is a very dreaded element, as much by the organizers as by the State and the elected officials.

The subject of transport has, since this summer, been invited to the top of the pile of Olympic concerns.

A mobility committee, with all the players concerned, meets regularly.

The call for competition "also involves carrying out a certain number of operations, such as the recovery of assets allocated to the RATP, which will seriously disrupt IDFM and the RATP in the preparation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games", writes the mayor of Paris.

For Anne Hidalgo, this reform “will lead to a fragmentation of the offer between different operators and will harm the organization of transport and the quality of daily public services, essential to Ile-de-France residents”.

Jean Castex, the former Prime Minister and ex-interministerial delegate to the Olympics, has just taken the reins of the RATP, while it is facing many challenges.

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  • Paris

  • Ile-de-France

  • Anne Hidalgo

  • RATP

  • Paris 2024 Olympics

  • Public transport

  • Bus