2023-12-22 07:00:10
If you take the metro in Paris, you may have noticed “a further deterioration of service (…) after a slight recovery in spring 2023 » ? This is the observation made at the beginning of December by Valérie Pécresse, the president (Les Républicains) of the Ile-de-France region and Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), in a press release where she « rappel[ait] at RATP the need to get back on track”.
Major difficulties affected the capital’s metropolitan network during the winter of 2022-2023, before an improvement on certain lines in the spring and summer. But new pitfalls arose in the fall.
The reasons are known: RATP is struggling to recruit drivers, even though it had already paused hiring during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the efforts of the public company, it is difficult to make the profession attractive – the end of the special regime for RATP employees in 2023 is undoubtedly not completely unrelated. It also lacks maintenance specialists, which explains the 20% fewer trains on line 8 for example, and the 10% on line 7.
Read also: Article reserved for our RATP subscribers: poor punctuality of the metros
If, after the confinements, the RATP and IDFM had reduced the frequency – and therefore increased the waiting time between the metros –, most of the lines have now returned to their 2019 regularity objective. According to the figures communicated by IDFM, only lines 4, 6 and 14 maintain a slightly lower frequency than before – with a wait of 5 or 10 seconds longer between metros.
The evolution of the frequency of Parisian metros
This graph presents the average frequency of Parisian metros during rush hours, in and relative to to that of 2019. The lines are arranged from the one with the most difference compared to 2019 to the one with the least.
A Average frequency in 2019
B frequency
For the calculation of the reference frequencies we only used the first 11 months of the year 2019. In fact, the month of December was marked by major strikes in transport, which reduced considerably – often to zero – the number of trains that were running.
Lines 3 bis and 7 bis were excluded from the analysis.
Between January and October 2023, only four lines “have very satisfactory results greater than or equal to the objectives” set by contract between IDFM and RATP for the period 2021-2024 : 5, 11, 1 and 14, the last two being automated. Four others have almost reached the objective: lines 2, 4, 9 and 10.
On the other hand, line 12 is also having difficulty finding a correct frequency despite notable improvements until the summer: in October 2023, with a wait of 2 minutes and 28 seconds between two trains, it is almost at the same level than a year ago. Lines 3, 6, 7 and 13 are “in great difficulty”, with less 85% punctuality during peak hours; on line 3, for example, the average wait is 2 minutes compared to the expected 1 minute and 40 seconds.
Line by line, the evolution of waiting times over the past eighteen months
These graphs represent the waiting times between two metros at peak times (start of 2022-end of 2023), as well as the target ranges set by Ile-de-France Mobilités.
Target range: at least 96.5% of the “ordered” frequency in 2023
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