La Presse in Paris | A metro network that will “shape habits”

Like the Réseau express métropolitain (REM), the Grand Paris Express has experienced delays and significant cost overruns since its launch. But soon, this vast Paris metro project will create 68 new stations connecting the suburbs on more than 200 kilometers of track. The Press visited this major infrastructure project, which comes with a self-sustaining financial model.

(Paris) “A few years ago, there was nothing here,” says the taxi driver when The Press arrives at the Saclay plateau, about twenty kilometers south of Paris. It is here, in this sector of Orsay where universities, local shops and community spaces have grown, that the aerial section of line 18 will see the light of day in a few years. By 2027 it must connect Orly airport in Versailles.

With four new lines serving suburban towns, in addition to the extension of another existing one, the Grand Paris Express, or GPE, aims to connect important development centers, such as Versailles, Marne-la-Vallée or La Defense, which will soon have a direct link with Charles-de-Gaulle international airport.

Four key elements of the Grand Paris Express

• Possibility of building a budget over 20 years, and not once a year, as transport companies are demanding in Quebec.
• Creation of a “tax on Parisian offices”, which finances the project through a tax paid by the owners of buildings benefiting from the metro.
• Fee drawn from the transport ticket to finance the construction of the Grand Paris Express.
• Entirely “dedicated” structure of the Société des Grands Projets, which withdraws afterwards and which can then build other projects outside Paris.

The main advantage of the Grand Paris Express “is its connection from suburb to suburb,” explains Nicolas Ledoux, president of Arcadis, a Dutch engineering company which acts as the main builder of this megaproject.

Until now, the public transport network in Île-de-France had always been organized as a hub. Travel from one suburb to another therefore had to pass through the center of Paris.

It is partly for this reason that the Châtelet-Les Halles station is today one of the most important in Europe.

Working-class neighborhoods like Bobigny or Rosny-sous-Bois, where the bus used to be the norm, will soon have access to a structuring system. “All this will come with the fact that around each station, a new district will emerge, with a real effect of urban transformation. It’s a huge change that’s coming. It will disrupt habits,” notes Mr. Ledoux.

An agile financial model

Concrete pillars, raised platform, glass and light stations: in appearance, the aerial portion of the GPE closely resembles the Montreal REM. But unlike the latter, 90% of the Grand Paris Express route will be underground. It is the Société des Grands Projets (SGP) which is the project manager, with the sole mandate of delivering the project, like CDPQ Infra with the REM.

“Before, for us, it was carried out by entities like the SNCF or the RATP, which have to run trains, or by municipalities, which have billions of things to manage. We are completely dedicated. It makes all the difference,” says SGP deputy project director, Thomas Poly.

The ambition is then to multiply this type of projects on French soil. Once the project is fully delivered, at the turn of 2030, “we will sort of disappear, to go and carry out other projects elsewhere in the country,” he continues. Cities like Lille, Strasbourg and Nancy have already expressed their interest in a structuring transport project.

“In Paris, we will give everything to Île-de-France Mobilités, including the infrastructure, the trains, the maintenance centers. And from there, they will enter into two contracts: one with an operator, the other with a maintainer. In short, everything is done in sequences,” says the manager, who sees it as a way of making all stakeholders responsible.

According to him, it is above all the financing which is “innovative”.

“We can build a budget over 20 years, whereas if we were subject to the national budget every year, we would not be able to plan as much over the long term,” continues Mr. Poly.

A tax, a fee

To fully repay the debt accumulated over a period of approximately 70 years, the Société des Grands Projets also introduced a real estate tax on Parisian offices a few years ago. Increased a few times, it now makes it possible to free up hundreds of millions of euros per year.

“When there is efficient public transport, the value of buildings increases, so it is logical that owners, who are the main beneficiaries, contribute more,” explains Mr. Poly on this subject.

His group will also receive part of the ticket price, which ranges between 2 and 4 euros as a single fare, to finance the Grand Paris Express. Other options have also been taken by the public authorities, including a recent increase in the tourist tax releasing 200 million euros.

It must be said that the bill for the project has continued to climb. Today it risks approaching 40 billion euros, which represents more than 58 billion Canadian dollars. The cost is officially set at 36.1 billion for the moment, but some observers expect further overruns. Already, this is a marked increase compared to the initial financial package, which oscillated around 20 billion.

Moreover, as in Montreal and the Réseau express métropolitain (REM), which also captures part of the increased land value of new developments, everything did not go as planned. Lines 15, 16 and 17, which were to serve the various sites of the Olympic Games events this summer, have respectively been postponed to 2025 or 2026. The CDG-Express, which will link with the airport, will wait until 2027.

In fact, only the extension of line 14, to the north and south, will be completed on time, by July, which will connect the Olympic village to several busy areas and to Orly airport.

More trips by bike than by car

The arrival of the GPE comes as the transformation of mobility is already well underway in Paris. Recently, the number of trips by bicycle is now greater than that of trips by car, a target that the administration of Mayor Anne Hidalgo openly wanted to achieve.

According to figures from the Paris Region Institute, cycling today represents more than 11% of trips in the “intra-muros” capital, i.e. the heart of the city without the suburbs. The car now only represents 4.3%, while walking remains dominant (54%), followed by public transport (around 30%).

“This demonstrates the rapid transition of lifestyles in Paris, the growing adoption of a new practice, cycling, in the daily life of a city which is adapting to climate change”, recently rejoiced on X l deputy for mobility in the French capital, David Belliard.

A sign that cycling “is deeply anchored in lifestyles, its share is even higher during rush hours in the morning and evening during home-work journeys”, underlined Mr. Belliard.

The study in question was carried out between October 2022 and April 2023 with some 3,330 residents of the region aged 16 to 80. Respondents were followed for a week by satellite to better understand their movements.