Let it be said: RATP is not just a transport company.
The Parisian metro operator has just created a new “business unit” which must respond to the problems of local communities.
“
With RATP Solutions Ville, the group is a trusted partner on all subjects complementary to urban mobility
,” said Tuesday during the presentation of her wishes for the year 2021 Catherine Guillouard, CEO of the public group .
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In fact, RATP brings together in a single division activities that it developed separately and independently: real estate, telecommunications and new mobility.
In all, these subsidiaries already achieved 110 million euros in turnover.
In addition, it will add two strings to its bow: urban logistics and energy.
The company does not want to communicate quantified targets in these areas.
But the motivations behind RATP's acceleration in areas related to its core business are well known: it wants to prepare for the inevitable loss of turnover linked to the opening up to competition in urban transport which is going very quickly. arrive.
It will begin in 2024 with buses in the inner suburbs.
"
We have 18,000 of our staff out of 45,000 in Paris who are affected by this operation
", illustrates Catherine Guillouard.
And this strategic shift is not called into question despite the health crisis which still affects the group with only 55% to 60% of traffic currently.
The strike Thursday on the RER A and B announced at the last minute does not call this offensive into question.
Accommodation and climbing walls
In real estate, the Régie already has a long experience.
For decades, it has played the role of promoter when it comes to reconverting its sites.
“
We always do this in partnership with major promoters
,” emphasizes Catherine Guillouard.
Currently, we have about fifteen projects.
"Thus, the company will take advantage of the conversion to electric of the Belliard bus depot in the 18th arrondissement of Paris to build an apartment building, a co-living residence, a nursery and even a room on the same land. 'climbing.
A program carried out in partnership with Linkcity, a Bouygues subsidiary, which will be delivered in 2026.
But through RATP Habitat, the company also manages a stock of HLM initially set up to allow metro agents to live near the depot where they take their service very early ... when there is no transport. in common.
Today, only 36% of tenants belong to the house.
RATP also wants to be an operator of new mobility.
To do this, it has taken stakes in start-ups such as Cityscoot, or Klaxit, a specialist in home-work carpooling.
Suddenly, she knows perfectly well how the health crisis has reshuffled the cards.
Among the winners, all individual transport in the open air.
Conversely, carpooling, which implies sharing trips, is in great pain.
Even more spectacular, the Régie has made a commitment with ADP (Aéroports de Paris) to develop the flying taxi industry in the Paris region by 2030.
With this experience, she intends to provide advice to cities on what works and is useful in these areas.
Telecoms, urban logistics and energy consulting
Another area of expertise: telecoms.
No one knows it, but the RATP has a 200 km network of optical fibers in the Paris metro, leased to telecom operators (Orange, SFR, Free, Bouygues) who will use it in particular to deploy 5G.
However, in the future, this network may be of interest to other customers.
Finally, the group wants to deploy on two areas that it has little cleared so far: urban logistics first.
In this context, he entered into a partnership with Sogaris, a Parisian specialist in logistics real estate.
The idea could be, for example, to optimize the parking lots of buildings used especially at night and to transform them during the day into a point where people come to pick up VTCs, shared bicycles where to look for races ordered in e-commerce. .
Last approach, energy consulting.
The RATP, which has been converting its buses to electric for several years, sees itself advising cities on this transition.
It will take a few years to see if this diversification is a gimmick or pays off.