Mr. Director of RATP Infrastructures,
While free access is one of the themes of the campaign for regional elections in Ile-de-France, we published a dossier on April 20 on the “true cost of transport”.
On an infographic, we gave some examples of purchase prices for certain equipment.
A metro train?
Count 9 million euros.
For a two-story RER, plan on 17 million.
And for the renewal of an escalator?
300,000 euros!
This latest assessment, confirmed by various experts, aroused the astonishment of several readers.
One of them, Jean-Marie Ferrand, wrote to us: “How on earth can the renewal of an escalator (and only one!) Come to cost… 300,000 euros? With this sum, you can buy a nice house in the suburbs of any provincial town! Could there be gold and diamonds in the cogs of this mechanism, the technology of which has nevertheless, to my humble knowledge, been mastered for more than a century? "
Escalators have become essential in our travels, whether in train stations, metro stations or shopping centers. In Ile-de-France, the RATP underground network alone has 963 escalators and 17 moving walkways, as at Montparnasse station. Fortunately, because without them, the RERs and subways would be very difficult to access for people with walking difficulties or with great physical exertion.
Moreover, many users are very unhappy when this equipment is stopped for several weeks.
In some metro stations, overhaul operations take up to two months!
Recently, Ile-de-France Mobilités signed a new contract with RATP.
Among the new features: a criterion for evaluating the smooth running of escalators and elevators.
But at what cost ?
How can the renewal of an escalator swallow up such a sum?
Mr. RATP Infrastructure Director, the readers of Parisien-Today in France are impatiently awaiting your response.
Jean-Louis Houpert's response: "Renewing an escalator is complex and expensive"
Jean-Louis Houpert, Director of RATP Infrastructures.
LP / Sebastian Companion
Jean-Louis Houpert does not dispute the sum of 300,000 euros. It all depends on the model: "The costs of renewing an escalator vary according to its configuration, its height difference, its accessibility," he explains. The RATP has no less than 963 escalators and 17 moving walkways on its underground network. The high renewal costs can be explained by "the very high attendance of these staircases operating 7 days a week and 20 hours a day in a dense urban environment subject to vandalism and bad weather (rain, snow, high temperatures, etc.)".
These constraints "imply the acquisition of more robust staircases than those installed in shopping centers or tertiary buildings".
In the metro, they undergo very heavy loads, from 60 to 70% of their capacity and each part is designed to withstand these infernal rates.
A regularly maintained escalator can last up to 40 years.
But replacing it completely is a heavy operation.
"The depth of certain stations and stations and the cramped nature of certain corridors necessitate numerous operations carried out mostly at night," continues Jean-Louis Houpert.
For example: organize “the cutting of escalators into sections to allow their passage in the corridors or the routing of escalators by works trains.
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