RATP plans to recruit 5,300 people in 2024, its CEO Jean Castex announced on Tuesday, who insisted on two important objectives: the success of the Olympic Games and the recovery of the quality of service in Parisian transport.
Last year, RATP, faced with major service difficulties, presented an even more ambitious recruitment program of 6,600 people.
“
We will continue this effort in 2024, obviously in smaller proportions
,” announced the former Prime Minister for whom one of the priorities will be “
to continue recruitment on the metro
”.
RATP plans to recruit 120 drivers and 200 others for internal mobility as well as 1,350 bus drivers.
The other two most sought-after professions are maintenance operators, with the ambition to attract 350 recruits, and station agents, who will be crucial in the hosting system for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
For the latter, RATP is targeting 900 recruitments, including 600 by the Olympics, a record.
“
We had, it’s true, made a lot of savings on these items and we realize that we probably went a little too far
,” admitted the CEO.
Read also Six months before the Olympic Games, the RATP is struggling to improve its quality of service
Training followed including at night
This ambitious recruitment plan takes “
the training system to its maximum
”, he further assured.
Before adding: “
we could not recruit more
”, indicating that metro driver training took place even at night.
In 2023, RATP achieved its recruitment objectives, allowing the service to improve significantly in the bus and metro after enormous difficulties at the end of 2022, without reaching satisfactory levels, according to Valérie Pécresse.
The president of the Île-de-France Mobilités transport authority asked RATP to restore a service equivalent to pre-Covid for March, while five metro lines are below 85% regularity at times peak.
But the objective seems difficult to achieve, by Mr. Castex's own admission.
First, due to the increase in abandoned baggage, which causes numerous traffic interruptions throughout the network.
Then, “
we have lines which have more obsolete, older equipment, on which, as luck would have it, we find lower performances
”, he underlined.
He welcomed the purchases of new equipment decided by IDFM, but this decision was taken “
20 years late.
And the only thing I don’t know how to do is go back in time
,” said the former prime minister.