The CEO of the RATP is betting on “more Parisians leaving” in August and “1.5 million additional travelers” to welcome, which is much less than the number of people transported daily in the Ile-de-France region.
“19,000 RATP agents will be mobilized to cope” to the influx of travelers during the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, said Tuesday September 19 Jean Castex, president and CEO of the Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens during a round table on the occasion of “Demain le Sport “, an event organized at the Maison de la radio et de la musique by franceinfo, in partnership with France Télévisions and L’Équipe. “This is much more than in a ‘normal’ August”he wants to emphasize.
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Jean Castex specifies that the RATP will also “mobilize agents who are not usually assigned to stations, to driving.” The company is looking for 3,000 “volunteers” internally for the Paris 2024 Games. “Already, in September, 1,700 agents have volunteered to reinforce” the teams, welcomes the president and CEO of the transport authority. “One of the challenges will indeed be to ensure that the community of RATP employees and volunteers, at a time when they are mostly on vacation, precisely because traffic is decreasing, are at work”he continues.
“9.6 million travelers expected, important but not insurmountable”
THE “very busy days”RATP transports “around 11.5 million people daily” And “8.1 million travelers” during the summer period. “In August, Paris and the Ile-de-France region become empty”, specifies Jean Castex. The Chairman and CEO of RATP believes that “Parisians and Ile-de-France residents who go on vacation in other years will also leave in August 2024”. They could even be “even more numerous” to go on leave during this period. The RATP estimates that it will be necessary to accommodate “1.5 million additional travelers” during the Paris Olympics.
Jean Castex “added” therefore the average number of Ile-de-France residents who stay in the region in August and the number of travelers who come to attend the Games. “We reach 9.6 million travelers”. And he wants to reassure: “If I compare to our very busy days, the dizziness is significant, but it is not insurmountable.”
No peak hours, but more spread out flows
However, the President and CEO of RATP notes that during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, there will not be “the morning rush hour and the evening rush hour, the distribution of flows will be both more spread out throughout the day”. He ensures that RATP and its partners, including Île-de-France Mobilités, have “already identified the days which will be busier than others and the sites in Paris” which will attract the most spectators. It will thus be necessary “strengthen, develop, adapt the transport offer”.
Jean Castex adds that the strengthening of the RATP offer during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games should not result in a deterioration of service for uses “in the months preceding or in the months following”. Otherwise, “the account will not be there”. According to him, the challenge for the Ile-de-France transport authority, “it is of course about the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but also the management of our human resources throughout 2024”.