SNCF had warned.
The year 2021 will also be busy with work on the SNCF network in Ile-de-France.
Bringing its share of traffic interruptions in the evening, on weekends or late in the morning in the resumption of traffic on a large part of the Transilien lines.
As announced this Wednesday morning, Guillaume Marbach, deputy general manager Île-de-France of SNCF Réseau, the level of work will be in 2021, "high", "record", "historic".
Like 2020, several hundred rail renovation, switch modernization, platform modernization and accessibility projects are scheduled across the network, for a similar amount of 2.2 to 2, 4 billion euros.
"The need for public transport is still there and will be reinforced by the epidemic", assures the director, recalling the pre-Covid context: "In 2019, the network was close to saturation with approximately 4 million daily travelers.
This can be explained by continued growth in housing and employment in the inner and outer suburbs ”.
According to him, the health crisis will not change the needs.
“Travelers quickly returned to public transport in Ile-de-France, compared to other global networks.
Thus, during the second confinement, we reached 80% of traffic on the northern network, for example, ”continues the general manager.
Hence the need, depending on the operator, to continue with all of the projects.
Regeneration work is continuing.
"In order to have tomorrow, a single efficient, meshed and reliable network, with no difference between the new (
Editor's note
:
the great Paris Express and its 200 km of automatic metro in the inner and outer suburbs
) and the historical, we must continue the 'effort to upgrade it,' says Guillaume Marbach.
Thus, this year 2021, 191 km of tracks will be changed, in particular on the RER B or on the H line, as well as 235 switches that will be renewed at various points in the network.
About ten stations will also experience accessibility works.
Prepare for the arrival of new trains.
At the same time, some lines will undergo work to accommodate new rolling stock.
Thus, since last year, line N has gradually seen the arrival of Regio 2Ns for which the platforms must be upgraded, taking advantage of this to carry out accessibility work.
Line D is also preparing for the arrival of the RER NG, scheduled for 2022.
Eole sees the end of the tunnel
.
The year 2021 should mark the end of the tunneling of the extension of the RER E from Haussmann Saint-Lazare to Nanterre (92) via Porte Maillot and La Défense.
The tunnel boring machine is currently under Porte Maillot, it should return to the center of Paris in May to arrive at Haussmann Saint-Lazare in early 2022. In parallel and without waiting for the end of the digging, the laying of the rails in the tunnel will begin at the beginning. summer in the La Défense sector.
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Better informed and better routed travelers.
SNCF, in conjunction with Ile-de-France Mobilités, also promises to make work schedules more readable.
It should experiment in the coming weeks on the northern axis, fixed times, each evening, for the launch of the works.
This way, the traveler will know that his last RER B, for example, will leave at 10 p.m.
Until then, it could go from 10:15 p.m. to midnight and then again from 11 p.m., confusing users.
SNCF network also ensures, without giving details, that it will offer “quality” substitute offers.
The north axis still at a standstill.
Some of the work on the “north axis” - the common portions between RER B, line K, RER D - are however still at a standstill.
As part of the CDG express, in fact, the direct Roissy - Gare de l'Est project, the renewal of 43 km of tracks and rails or, among other things, the change of 76 switches are planned and financed to the tune of € 537 million.
But they are for the moment stopped by a summary won by the opponents of the project, who fear to see degrading an RER B already in bad shape.
Ile-de-France Mobilités has also asked SNCF to separate this work required for the RER B from the CDG express project.
"It's difficult to undo the sweater and redesign it, we are looking at how we can organize the rest of the work", replied this Wednesday morning, Guillaume Marbach.
The Paris administrative court of appeal must decide in the coming days whether or not to resume work.
