After months of “lighter offer” in transport, user associations are saying stop.
In an open letter to Valérie Pécresse, president of Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the spokespersons for daily users of RER B, C or D, in particular, express their fed up with the times of lengthened waiting times, to canceled trains and to the promiscuity experienced at rush hour.
“It is not normal to get on crowded subways or trams on weekends after a long wait.
It is not normal to wait half an hour for your RER E in the morning at 8 am.
It is not normal to wait 20 or 30 minutes for a bus in the suburbs”, accuse ten association leaders in the open letter that we reproduce below.
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In great financial difficulty, Île-de-France Mobilités has decided to reduce the frequency of buses, trains and metros to achieve savings in 2022, of the order of 60 million euros.
IDFM ensures that 98% of the offer is maintained, for a number of travelers which does not currently exceed 70% of the pre-Covid-19 normal.
“There are meetings every week to find out if this offer should be readjusted according to the level of attendance.
For the moment, it is largely sufficient”, estimated IDFM Monday, February 7 in Le Parisien.
But representatives of transport users experience things very differently.
They point out that the overall figure of 98% hides great disparities from one line to another.
After two years of health restrictions, and as the end of the 5th wave of Covid-19 looms, they demand that the transport service "also be up to the task and be restored to 100% as soon as possible".
The open letter from user associations
“Ms. Valérie Pécresse, President of the Île-de-France region,
Île-de-France Mobilités, the authority over which you preside and which organizes transport in Île-de-France, is maintaining reductions in the supply of metros, RER, Transilien, trams and buses even though users are once again very numerous in transport, with a strong promiscuity in peak hours.
This observation, which many users report to us, is corroborated by a study by the SNCF, the Paris Region Institute and the Kisio company indicating that there were as many people this fall as at the beginning of 2020 on certain lines, and several days of the week.
These cuts in the normal supply are incomprehensible in a context where employees are returning to the office and where Covid variants are very contagious.
The Institut Pasteur recently modified its analysis of the risks of contamination in the metro, three quarters of the lines of which are subject to a reduced supply.
It is essential to return to the normal offer as quickly as possible to avoid overloading our public transport.
It is not normal to get on crowded subways or trams on weekends after a long wait.
It is not normal to wait half an hour for your RER E in the morning at 8 am It is not normal to wait 20 or 30 minutes for a bus in the suburbs, which is often full when it finally arrives.
Some train cuts in the suburbs are also akin to a severe degradation of public service.
Thus for more than a year, several lines have an offer reduced by half in off-peak hours or on weekends in an incomprehensible way.
As if certain territories of the great crown had to pay the price for a health crisis that is beyond us.
On line U (La Défense-La Verrière) or on line N (Paris-Rambouillet), people now wait for their train for an hour in the middle of the day or on weekends.
We wait half an hour for our RER C at Athis-Mons or Versailles.
In the same way, more than 150 suburban bus lines and half of the tram lines are experiencing a reduced service, with very long waiting times because the buses are stuck in more significant traffic jams than before.
The meager savings made possible by these service cuts make only a minimal contribution to the funding deficit for the operation of our metros and buses.
This deficit must be solved urgently, but by maintaining a frequent and reliable supply, essential to reduce our galleys and to be a credible alternative to the car.
While users have been making efforts for almost two years to wear the mask on each trip, to adapt to the many interruptions at any point of the network to carry out the modernization work, we ask you, as president of IDF Mobilities, that the transport service is also up to scratch and is restored to 100% as soon as possible.
»
The signatories:
Marc Pélissier, president of the
FNAUT-Ile de France
association ;
Arnaud Bertrand, president of the
Plus de trains
association ;
Jonathan Magano, president of the
SaDuR - RER D
association ;
Maryvonne Noël, president of the association
Circule - RER C
;
Marie-Hélène Wittersheim, president of the
CourB - RER B
association ;
Jacques Vandeputte, president of the
RER D Val-de-Seine
association ;
Christophe Piercy, president of
AUT Plaine Commune
;
Marie-Catherine Poirier, president of the
AUT Clamart
association ;
Liliane Bermont, President of
the Users' Committee - right bank of the Seine Line J
(CDU-RDS);
Jean-Jacques Campan, president of the
Collective of local associations of the RER B Robinson.