His passion for the railways is no longer a secret for the French, as he still confided to the Parisian when packing for Matignon. It was also Jean Castex who spoke to travelers to play the captain on the occasion of the resumption of the Paris-Nice night train.
The former Prime Minister should be appointed CEO of the RATP, several media revealed on Tuesday, including our colleagues from Les Echos. “The HATVP (High Authority for Transparency in Public Life, Editor’s note) gave a favorable opinion this evening”, then also affirmed a source familiar with the matter to AFP, who specified that the former tenant of Matignon will now have to ” be heard by the parliamentary committees and then the Council of Ministers”.
According to the “Molettetre” site, Jean Castex, who was initially eyeing the SNCF currently headed by Jean-Pierre Farandou, would have met “this weekend” President Emmanuel Macron who would have given the green light. “As Prime Minister, he made several decisions relating to the institutional context in which the RATP will evolve (…) or on the confirmation of the monopoly of the GPSR (the RATP’s in-house security service) on the lines of the Grand Paris Express”, notes the specialized publication.
A “great passion” but insufficient for the unions
“In addition to this heavy mortgage relating to the presumption of conflict of interest, the putting into orbit of Jean Castex would result from a practice derogating from the recruitment process put in place by the APE (Agence des participations de l’Etat) for a months, namely the hearing by Jouve & Associés of the many candidates”, adds the specialized press.
A trade union source takes a dim view of this arrival of “someone who knows nothing about transport” despite a declared interest and “considers that there is no difference between a bus driver from Paris and that of Clermont-Ferrand”.
The RATP, which manages 330 lines in Ile-de-France and transports more than three million passengers a day via its bus network, is currently experiencing all the trouble in the world to maintain a full service, against a backdrop of absenteeism, difficulties recruitment or opening up to competition.
The former head of government should thus replace Catherine Guillouard. She had announced at the beginning of September that she would be leaving her post at the end of September for “personal reasons”. The Ratp which also has to deal with the departure of its number two, Philippe Martin, who retired on September 30.
In the middle of August, former Prime Minister Jean Castex took over as head of the board of directors of the Agency for Financing Transport Infrastructure in France (Afit France), by decree of the President of the Republic.
Jean Castex has repeatedly expressed his attachment to the field of transport during his time at Matignon. The former mayor of Prades then recognized the need to invest massively in rail to decarbonize transport.
“I’m going to go back to my Pyrenees, I have to repaint my shutters and my railing which took a hit for two years”, he confided to the Parisian a few hours before the transfer of power. He had already shown us two objects that were going to leave with him: the model of the very last TGV offered by Alstom – the train is his other great passion -, and the plaque of a metro station with his name on it, given to him by the RATP during the inauguration of the extension of line 14.