“
I am very happy
”, Thibaut is already delighted, while the RATP has just announced the return this summer of electric buses manufactured by the Bolloré group subsidiary Bluebus, withdrawn from circulation in spring 2022 after two fires which had occurred at the battery pack level.
At the time, the images went viral on social media, as the electric buses caught fire so violently and quickly.
But nothing is enough to worry this young 28-year-old Parisian, a user of line 71. He much prefers the Bluebus “
quieter and more comfortable than the old diesels that shake and make noise that they put in our place
” .
“
With a little luck, they will even have repaired the screens which almost never worked
,” he allows himself to be ironic.
There is no question of giving in to panic today for users, who generally share the same opinion: “
if they choose to put it back into circulation, it is because the technical defects have been repaired
”.
“
I would much rather have a clean electric bus of a classic size, rather than the huge thermal buses, which make my building shake
,” says Élise, who lives at the intersection of several bus lines.
As for the worry that such incidents will recur, this mother is calm: “
there were no injuries at the time, right?
A technical problem happens to any vehicle
.”
And a third user recalled that several RATP buses “
have already suffered fires in recent years, the majority of which were not Bluebuses
”.
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End of discussions and agreement validated with Bolloré
For the Parisian authority, the return of Bluebus to its network is obviously good news, putting an end to several months of fierce discussions to find out who the manufacturer or the operator responsible for maintenance was responsible and who had to pay for the modifications made to the bus.
“
The RATP, Île-de-France Mobilités and Bluebus have concluded an agreement putting an end to the ongoing discussions between the RATP and Bluebus
,” soberly indicated the Parisian authority, which is delighted with the return of the 148 buses excluded from circulation since the April 29, 2022 and the arrival of the 84 others “
which remained to be received at the time of the incident
”.
And this, in light of the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris this year.
Same story from Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the organizing authority for public transport in the Ile-de-France region, which specifies that an agreement has been reached so that “
all immobilized Bluebuses can be adapted and return to circulation
.
On the agenda therefore: better insulation of the “engine” boxes, so that – if there is a fire – the fire cannot, or less quickly, spread to the rest of the vehicle.
Moreover, "
the causes of the fires - that is to say the insulation fault within the battery pack - as well as the remedies proposed by the Bolloré bus company - that is to say the change battery packs and the installation of a thermal fuse alarm - were confirmed by the independent audit report entrusted to INERIS”
, recalls IDFM.
“Additional security devices”
After these fires which occurred on these two buses, “
extensive technical analyzes were carried out in order to identify the root cause
”, recalls the Bolloré group today, explaining that this process had made it possible to identify the origin of the fire , coming from “
a specific step in the production process of a series of battery packs
”.
Since then, “
all of the packs concerned have been removed from RATP buses
”, while “
Bluebus has also reviewed and changed its battery pack production processes in order to re-equip all the buses
”, in turn wishes to reassure the Bolloré group .
Before specifying: “
in full coordination with the RATP and IDFM, all Bluebuses returned to service will benefit from additional security measures
”.
So many modifications made to the series of Bluebuses in question which appear today as a guarantee of seriousness, before the return to service of this fleet which IDFM wishes to be “
as quickly as possible”
.
But probably not before the summer, since this will be done
“after consultation with the competent authorities and when the staff representative bodies and agents have been informed”
, the RATP would like to emphasize.
But on this subject, IDFM is already announcing the color: the authority
“will ensure the good performance of this return to service”
of these buses which will replace certain aging models and complete the offer of land for the deadline of the Olympics.