2024-03-28 07:09:08
Throughout the duration of the Olympic Games, residents of the Île-de-France region will have to adapt their travel, with transport expected to be crowded on certain lines. Many, particularly in the suburbs, will however not be able to change their uses.
Published on: 03/28/2024 – 08:09 Modified on: 03/28/2024 – 16:40
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Take your bike, walk, telework or even leave Paris. Ile-de-France residents have been warned that it will be necessary to adapt its uses to relieve transport during the Olympic Games. However, these injunctions are only aimed at the most privileged, many users not having the luxury of these options.
“You shouldn’t be afraid to do a little walking, it’s good for your health.” The sentence from the president (Les Républicains) of the Île-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, raised some eyebrows on Monday March 25 during the presentation of the detailed transport plan for the Olympic Games.
???? “You shouldn’t be afraid to do a little walking. It’s good for your health”
For the Olympics, Valérie Pécresse calls on Ile-de-France residents to avoid saturated stations and to exit at the station before or after pic.twitter.com/DNDo1WL3vv
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) March 25, 2024
On the left, elected officials from the region have pointed out a form of disconnection from the inhabitants of the distant suburbs, forced to come and work in Paris. On the side of Valérie Pécresse, we defend a word of common sense, since “a third of the visitors to the Games will be between 25 and 35 years old, so we hope that between 25 and 35 years old, we can from time to time extend the journey to foot”.
Serving Roland-Garros and the Parc des Princes simultaneously
For everyday users, however, the situations are very contrasting in the capital region. Many lines will be overloaded, or even not recommended on certain days, at the risk of having to wait more than 15 minutes on crowded platforms before boarding the train.
Metro line 10, which crosses the beautiful Parisian neighborhoods and ends in the very chic town of Boulogne-Billancourt, is one of them. With the 9, it is not sized to serve Roland-Garros and the Parc des Princes simultaneously, where tennis, boxing and football events will take place.
“I’m very apprehensive because it’s going to be an indescribable circus,” anticipates Arthur Poly, a 36-year-old teacher-researcher waiting for his metro at Motte-Picquet-Grenelle station, in the 15th arrondissement.
The metro in Paris, January 10, 2020. © Martin Bureau, AFP
He will be forced to work during the competition period (July 26 to August 11). His solution to avoid the “mess” announced? “Rather walking, I can have times that I decide, so I can afford to take time and walk, which will do me good,” concedes this resident of the 5th arrondissement.
Marie-Claude, 73-year-old retiree and regular user of line 10, will go to her vacation home in Loire-Atlantique. For Coline, who works in cybersecurity, “teleworking is recommended to us,” she assures. “We may have to do a little more than usual”, but she reserves the possibility of going to work outside Paris, “if I get tired of being at home”.
“Already without the Olympics, line 13 is crowded”
Further north, the atmosphere changes radically on line 13. The eternal sick and overloaded line of the network serves working-class neighborhoods of Seine-Saint-Denis and, above all, the Stade de France, which will fill and empty until three times a day during the Olympics. Here too, everyday workers are invited to avoid using it.
“Leaving Paris during the Olympics? But to go where?”, wonders Christian Boukassa when asked the question on the platform of La Fourche station. This 43-year-old construction worker lives in a distant suburb, and takes 45 minutes every day to get to his construction site in Saint-Denis.
La Fourche metro station in Paris, April 24, 2020. © Geoffroy van der Hasselt, AFP (archives)
Neither teleworking, nor walking or cycling are possible, not to mention a hypothetical second home. To avoid inconvenience, “I’ll tap my GPS and change the route,” he supposes.
“Already without the Olympics, line 13 is crowded,” says Nafi Olouchy, 62 and a nurse at the hospital. She also has no other choice but to work during the Games, because public hospital officials are strongly encouraged not to take their leave during this period. “I will have to put up with the traffic during the Olympics, and so will all my colleagues,” she explains.
Yaya Fofana, a parcel preparer living in Saint-Ouen, is resigned: “It’s going to be complicated,” he slips. However, it will be “a big party”, he wants to remember. “I love the Olympic Games,” he says before inserting himself with difficulty into a crowded train with his son in a stroller.
With AFP
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