“I am optimistic, the operators are rolling up their sleeves,” assures Valérie Pécresse, president of Île-de-France Mobilités, the authority which organizes transport in Île-de-France.
Monday afternoon, she heard the presidents of the RATP and the SNCF, summoned to explain the results - not as good as hoped - of the metro, RER and Transilien lines and their remedies to improve the quality of the offer on the Ile-de-France network.
At the end of January, six lines are still in difficulty.
On the metro side, these are 6, 8 and 13, still in great pain and for whom the road to recovery will be a little longer.
“Progress will only be visible with the arrival of the MF19s – the new trains currently being built at Alstom – and semi-automatic control on line 13,” concedes Jean Castex.
In other words 2027 probably.
“Until then, we are doing what we can but the margins are not exponential,” regrets the RATP boss.
The increase in the number of forgotten bags observed by RATP and SNCF adds to the repeated incidents on these lines which have some of the oldest equipment on the network.
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“180 to 200 agents are also missing every day,” points out Valérie Pécresse.
A large-scale recruitment campaign has been launched with more than 5,300 positions to be filled.
Jean Castex also focuses on “quality of life at work”: “We hope soon to sign agreements on the experimentation of the four-day week, the renovation of premises, the increase in budgets for childcare, etc. .
» He also assures, to fight against fraudulent sick leave, “to have hired several additional investigators”.
On the rest of the metro, things are also better.
Some lines seem to be well on their way to recovery, such as 10, 4 and 9 which are finally reaching the metro frequency objectives set by Île-de-France Mobilités.
The bus network seems to be improving.
RATP says it provides almost 90% of what is asked of it.
“But we are reaching a ceiling due to losses linked to traffic difficulties,” adds Jean Castex.
At Transilien, 600 train drivers being recruited
On behalf of the SNCF group, CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou gave a “mixed” assessment of the year 2023, with a “correct” average of 90% for punctuality, down 1 point.
The three lines which concentrate the difficulties are the RER B, C and D, without forgetting the T12 whose “start-up is difficult to say the least”, admitted the manager.
For six SNCF lines out of thirteen in Île-de-France, he promised a return to a full offer from this summer and until the end of 2024, "time to train the drivers" of trains and tram.
“We readily recognize that we need to step up our efforts,” he continued.
Transilien will recruit 613 train drivers in 2024, after 200 in 2023.
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The RER B, co-operated with the RATP, is the subject of an action plan, based on the 14 proposals in the report
by Yves Ramette, aiming to gain 1 punctuality point per year.
It is currently stagnating at 85%.
Among the reasons for hope, the boss of the SNCF cited the return of a sufficient number of trains, thanks to the maintenance workshops in Mitry (Seine-et-Marne) and Massy (Essonne).
Procedural changes will help limit traffic interruptions.
Thus, in the event of passenger discomfort, they can be evacuated to the platforms.
And in the event of intrusion on the tracks, SNCF drivers will be able to drive on sight, like their RATP counterparts.
The RER D is expecting the new RER NG trains at the end of the year, which should gradually make this fragile line more reliable.
As for the RER C, affected by more than 1,200 missions in November, it will have to pull itself together to be there for the Olympics, during which it will be in high demand in Paris.