Confined, deconfined, reconfined.
Emmanuel Macron unveiled this Wednesday evening the new restrictions applied to fight against the second epidemic wave of Covid-19.
Although the president did not mention them specifically, public transport will be maintained, in order to continue to provide essential travel and maintain economic life.
But one thing is certain: from Friday, it will be necessary to have an authorization to circulate, on foot, by bike, by car, by train or by metro.
Only travel for professional or medical reasons, for shopping or providing assistance to a vulnerable person will be allowed.
"I am a self-employed person, I prefer teleworking, but sometimes I travel by metro to see suppliers," explains Christophe, 32, who runs a decoration shop in Paris (19th century).
You have to trust us a little, I hope that there will be flexibility in the control of the professional travel certificate ”.
The details of the measures put in place in public transport should be specified this Thursday by the government.
But as during the first confinement and the curfew, adjustments to the number of subways, trains and buses will have to be expected, after an "observation period".
“You have to be pragmatic.
This reconfinement is necessary, estimates Rachid, an inhabitant of the XIXe arrondissement of Paris.
I put myself in the place of the RATP.
We have to find a balance to avoid the crowds at certain times and that there are only empty trainsets at other times ”.
"More travelers" expected than during the first confinement
Ile-de-France Mobilités and its president Valérie Pécresse intend to adapt the offer according to new needs.
“We are going to adapt the organization of transport, as we have done since the curfew,” she says.
We will look at the evolution of attendance, and bring together user associations to decide together.
All the people who will continue to travel to work must be able to do so in good conditions ”.
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As for the associations, we are already expecting traffic in Ile-de-France to be significantly higher than that observed in March and April.
This had fallen to less than 5% of normal.
The number of subways, buses, RERs and trams had then been reduced to 30% and the trains only ran between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
"This time, even with the generalization of teleworking, there will be more trips than in the spring," estimates Arnaud Bertrand, president of the Plus de Trains association.
In addition to employees, there will also be schoolchildren, college students, high school students and students… During this new confinement, we could reach between 15% and 30% of the usual passenger traffic ”.
To properly transport people who depend on public transport, user associations require several guarantees.
Starting with maintaining a regular frequency of trains, subways and RER.
“Until next week, we want an offer 100% during peak hours and at least one in two trains during off-peak hours,” continues Arnaud Bertrand.
"Reasonable" waiting times
Like Plus de Trains, the Ile-de-France Transport Users Association (AUT) and its president Marc Pélissier also want a rolling service "from 5 am to 1 am on weekdays" and not substitute buses. , very slow.
Finally, Plus de Trains wishes to preserve “reasonable” waiting times, namely “no more than 30 minutes of waiting for suburban trains and 10 minutes or 20 minutes maximum interval between two subways”.
