(Paris) Are the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in danger of being blocked by the metro? An incident on line 4 of the Paris metro on Wednesday evening rekindled concerns about the Ile-de-France transport network, one year before the Olympics.
Hundreds of passengers were stranded in overcrowded and overheated Line 4 trains for two long hours after damage to a train, an incident described as “quite exceptional” by the RATP transport authority, which launched an investigation. internal.
“We got stuck in unbearable heat,” testified to AFP Oussama El Cherif, 19, who wanted to reach the Odéon station in the heart of the capital.
After a long wait between two stations, he resolved, like several other passengers, to “walk along the rails” to get out.
Five “very full” automatic trains were blocked in the tunnel of line 4 from 7:25 p.m., “exceptional conditions which almost never happen”, declared to the press Agnès Ogier, director of rail services at the RATP.
At the same time, the entire metro line 13 was blocked for two hours on Wednesday evening due to a computer failure. Passengers were dropped off at the station and asked to change their route.
These cascading incidents sound the alarm within 400 days of the Olympics, where more than ten million spectators are expected.
The transport offer will be “ready” for the Games, assured Transport Minister Clément Beaune on Tuesday. The extension of line 14, which will connect Orly airport to the Saint-Denis-Pleyel station, near the Stade de France, should in particular be ready in the spring of 2024.
But there are still a few points to settle in the transport plan, around Roland-Garros and the Stade de France. Additional shuttles could be set up during these crucial weeks so as not to overload line 9.
The Paris firefighters sent six emergency vehicles to the Montparnasse, Saint-Germain-des-Près and Saint-Placide stations on Wednesday evening to facilitate the evacuation.
The CEO of RATP, former Prime Minister Jean Castex, called for an internal investigation so that “such an incident does not happen again”.