Government and Île-de-France region pass the buck.
Minister Delegate for Transport Clément Beaune has not ruled out postponing the opening to competition of the current RATP monopoly on buses in Île-de-France, scheduled for January 1, 2025, if there is a risk of disruption of the 2024 Olympic Games, this Thursday in La Croix, while specifying that the decision was up to the region.
After putting buses in the outer suburbs into competition, the transport authority Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) has divided up the current RATP monopoly in the heart of the Paris region into twelve lots, and has already launched the tenders for four of them.
The left-wing opposition to Valérie Pécresse, president of the region and of IDFM, has been campaigning for several months against the arrival of competition or for its postponement, believing that the process of opening up the market is already having an impact on the difficulties of the RATP.
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The schedule for buses "coincides" with the organization of the Olympics, 250 left-wing elected representatives from the Ile-de-France region highlighted in particular on Monday in an open letter to Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, seeing it as an additional argument against a "great leap into the less- social saying and in the organizational unknown".
All of the Régie's unions are similarly opposed to the loss of its monopoly, hence the fear of strikes, in addition to a possible disorganization of the service.
The ball in Valérie Pécresse's court
"I will not make you believe that we are not thinking about it," replied Clément Beaune, questioned by La Croix on the risk of disruption during the Olympics, organized six months before the deadline.
"The community that has this responsibility is the region," he noted, de facto designating IDFM.
“It's up to her first to tell us the situation and the risks, we will discuss it, and I am open to all options.
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“Opening up to competition is a tool.
If it is relevant within the current schedule, then it should be used on the scheduled date.
If it is relevant at a later date, it must be activated later, “said the minister, clearly throwing the ball back to Valérie Pécresse.
“If it is decided to postpone the opening to competition, it will be a political choice”, reacted in the entourage of the president of IDFM.
“We apply European legislation transcribed into French law.
(…) IDFM is in battle order to be ready for January 1, 2025,” added a spokesperson for the organizing authority for transport in Île-de-France.