Yves Crozet is an economist specializing in transport.
A professor at Sciences Po Lyon and at the University of Lyon II, he believes that the Covid-19 crisis will have a lasting impact on the way in which public transport in Ile-de-France is financed.
Is the transport financing model in Ile-de-France in danger with the Covid-19 crisis?
Our model is of course weakened.
But it is much less so than the English model where, in places, all operating expenses are supposed to be covered by commercial revenues, without subsidies.
Result: when you lose 50% of the traffic, like today, it is the disaster.
In the Parisian case, paradoxically, thanks to the mobility payment
(Editor's note: the tax paid by companies in Ile-de-France to finance Ile-de-France Mobilités)
and other community subsidies, our model is more robust.
Commercial receipts, which were 28% of the total, will perhaps drop to 20%, which ultimately makes only a small gap in the budget.
Is free of charge a valid idea in your opinion?
In the case of Ile-de-France, in my opinion it would be an electoral idea, costly and without ecological effect.
But it is true that in our system free could appear almost logical.
If the commercial receipts represent only 15% or 20% of the total, some say they are "as much to do free".
Our model corresponds to the French mentality, which is based on public spending.
Logically, there should be revenue in front of public expenditure.
But that's Anglo-Saxon reasoning!
(laughs).
In the future, is the financing of Ile-de-France transport guaranteed?
In the 1970s, 70% of expenses were covered by revenue.
Today we are at 30% and we are heading towards 20%.
But this path, in the medium term, can pose big problems because we will lack funding to modernize the system.
Morning essentials newsletter
A tour of the news to start the day
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
Should the prices of the Navigo Pass be increased?
This is what Ms. Pécresse did during the first years of her mandate.
But the electoral horizon approaching, it stopped.
According to the Court of Auditors, a change in tariffs would help cover expenses a little better.
Only, once we have dezoned, it is very difficult to ask for more from those who travel the farthest.
READ ALSO>
And if the Navigo increased to save transport in Ile-de-France?
What other funding channels can we consider?
Charging businesses in the Ile-de-France region can make sense, because most of them benefit from it. But the spread of teleworking could change a lot of things. The shock of Covid-19 and teleworking have emptied public transport. The bike grows and the car comes back. So we are going to have public transport which is still costly, which will be less crowded and which will generate less revenue. There may be a questioning by companies of the tax they pay. The Covid-19 crisis shows that the system is fragile. Either we multiply the resources related to taxation. Either we empower the user and the companies, who are asked to pay for home-work journeys. We could also price all road trips, with urban tolls,as in Stockholm (Sweden) or Oslo (Norway), where road users finance 20% of public transport.
