Le Figaro Lyon
Delegate of Lyon public transport since 1993, the Keolis group has just lost the future operation of the metros, funiculars, trams and Rhônexpress from 2025 to the RATP Dev group.
Sytral, the transport union of the metropolis of Lyon, made official this Tuesday this small earthquake in the world of public transport.
“I will propose to the elected representatives of Sytral Mobilités at the board of directors meeting on March 28, to retain the Keolis group until the end of 2034 for the bus and trolleybus lot, and the RATP Dev group until the end of 2030 for the modes lot heavy
,” declared Bruno Bernard, president of the Métropole de Lyon and Sytral.
In February 2021, the environmentalist president of Greater Lyon made the choice for the first time to divide the Lyon transport market into two lots.
One for heavy transport and the other for buses.
A change of direction dictated by the desire to attract more candidates and to encourage competition between the players when no other offer than that of Keolis was presented in 2017 when the delegation was put back into play.
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Close offers
“Given the size of the network, without the allotment, putting together a file would have cost several million euros to a possible competitor to Keolis. And this with the almost certainty of losing
,” confides a transport market expert to Le
Figaro
.
In a report from June 2019, the regional audit chamber of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes also encouraged Sytral to increase competition in the Lyon market, in particular to
“strengthen the quality of service”
and
“optimize performance”.
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When this allotment was announced in 2021, the RATP Dev group quickly positioned itself as a credible candidate and even set up a team of around ten people in Lyon to present an offer.
Offer accepted for the “heavy modes”
lot
for which Sytral indicates having received
“two equivalent technical offers”
and having decided
“on the overall cost of the contract which made the difference”
.
Concerning the bus lot, the transport organization indicates that the latter
“has the largest number of agents and the largest annual turnover”
.
Keolis was selected because
of “the quality of its technical offer”
.
Via this new allocated organization, Sytral must also internalize certain strategic missions such as user relations and communication, currently managed by Keolis, which will be entrusted in the future to Local Public Companies (SPL) in 100% public management.
The choice of the two candidates will be submitted to a vote by the elected members of the Sytral board of directors on March 28.