“We are ready,” assures the general director of SNCF Gares et Connexions

For the Olympic Games, the stakes for SNCF Gares et Connexions are high. According to forecasts, it will be necessary to accommodate 15 million visitors, including two million foreigners, in a total of 56 stations in France.

Marlène Dolveck is the general director of SNCF Gares et Connexions. One month before the start of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, the first phase of work on the Gare du Nord is officially complete. The inauguration took place this morning. Furthermore, the renovation of the Lyon Part-Dieu station is completed after that of Toulouse Matabiau last year. The developments concerning the SNCF infrastructures were therefore completed on time for the event.

Marlene Dolveck: We are ready for the Olympics. It was a great pleasure this morning to inaugurate the Gare du Nord in Paris, with a much more modern operation. Inside, new signage, new escalators. We have also boosted all the services and businesses that are at the station. And above all, what is quite remarkable, is the opening onto the city, with a new bicycle hall, the largest in Île-de-France, more than 1,200 secure bicycle spaces, but also new taxi access.

“We prepared like marathon runners, we can count the preparation time in years. I must say that one month before the Olympic Games, we are ready. 100% of the stations are accessible.”

Marlène Dolveck, general director of SNCF Gares et Connexions

at franceinfo

Finally, it really is a total reconfiguration of the station. It’s the same in Lyon Part-Dieu which also saw the opening of 600 square meters of additional services today. We also doubled the surface area of ​​the station with a completely new and innovative operation of this Lyon Part-Dieu station.

Are there additional trains and additional staff planned at the station to accommodate all these visitors?

Yes of course. We have 10,000 people who will be mobilized in our stations to welcome all visitors, with a new application, the Trade SNCF app, which will allow each and every railway worker to be able to translate the questions asked into more than 100 languages by visitors. We also have a new application which allows you to have the train departure and arrival panels in your pocket, which allows you to stroll around the station peacefully without being crowded in front of the display panel.

The main lines will be requested since there are tests in Marseille for example. How are you going to manage the flow of people traveling during this summer period as well?

It’s a job. We actually thought about travel that could be different within the station. And it’s a real choreography that has been organized for several months and we trained for this choreography thoroughly, we did lots of training.

Is there any reinforcement planned in terms of security?

It is absolutely important to manage security. We have obviously worked with each of the police headquarters concerned which are the leaders of this security in the territory. As for the stations, we obviously have our railway security personnel, but also many more private security personnel. We also have police stations at the stations. Friday, we visited the new police station which will be in the station at Lyon Part-Dieu and it is something new.