The authority in charge of transport has made its choice. The operation of lines 16 and 17 of the Grand Paris Express will be awarded to Keolis at the Board of Directors meeting on 30 May. This decision was eagerly awaited. Lines 16 (from Saint-Denis-Pleyel to Noisy-Champs) and 17 (from Saint-Denis to Mesnil-Amelot) will enter service from 2026 and 2028 respectively. But it is the operator of line 16 who will be in charge of the Saint-Denis-Pleyel station, which will host line 14 from June 2024.
Keolis already employs 5,000 people in Île-de-France, where it operates buses in the outer suburbs and trams T9 and T13. Leader of the automatic metro in the world, the subsidiary of the SNCF group and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has just beaten RATP Dev, which was in the running in partnership with Alstom and ComfortDelGro Transit (operator based in Singapore). A third offer, that of the Franco-Italian Atemis (ATM-Egis, Caisse des dépôts), was also not retained.
Line 15 south soon to be assigned
Things were however badly started in the historic cradle of its competitor, the RATP. In 2016, the boss of Keolis at the time, Jean-Pierre Farandou, denounced the attribution by law of the management of the infrastructure of the Grand Paris Express to the RATP. "Cutting an automatic metro in half when it is an integrated system by nature is a world first, and it raises questions for us. We have a hard time seeing how it can work," he said. The Transdev group preferred to throw in the towel.
"Usually, the operation of an automatic metro includes both infrastructure and trains," says Youenn Dupuis, director of Keolis in Île-de-France. But, in the end, the division of the various responsibilities carried out by Île-de-France Mobilités seemed sufficiently precise. Even if this market looks like 110 m hurdles, we are confident, thanks to our expertise on the automatic metro and our capacity for innovation. »
The Franco-French match between the "outsider" Keolis and the historic "monopoly" RATP promised to be tight. The lucky winner will have the difficult task of running a long-awaited network, which will have swallowed at least 35 billion euros in 2030. At this price, the slightest incident will be difficult to accept. The next award on the Grand Paris Express will concern line 15 South, in the course of 2023.
Keolis' history in the automated metro began in 1983 in Lille (Nord), with the first automated network. Then the company expanded its canvas in France (Lyon, Rennes) and around the world, in India, Shanghai or London. Not to mention Doha (Qatar), where the company co-operates the metro with RATP Dev.