2023-07-18 06:13:05
Overwhelmed, the disappointment of not having been selected for the operation of metro lines 16 and 17 of the Grand Paris Express. After these calls for tenders were won in May 2023 by Keolis, a 70% subsidiary of the SNCF, this time it is the RATP which should win the bet (1), except for a last minute surprise, for the metro line 15.
The contract in question concerns more specifically the southern section of line 15, the first of this automatic metro line which will be put into service at the end of 2025. 33 kilometers long, it will connect the Pont de Sèvres station (Hauts-de -Seine) at Noisy-Champs (Seine-Saint-Denis), bypassing Paris from the south via 16 stations. All in 37 minutes, against one hour currently, boasts the Grand Paris Express company.
One million passengers per day
The case is important. Because if lines 16 and 17 must eventually transport, and respectively, 200,000 and 160,000 passengers per day, this southern section of the 15 will rise for its part to 1 million passengers per day. Winning this contract is therefore a very concrete victory for the RATP, but also a double symbol: that of its essential role in Île-de-France and its claimed world leadership in mass passenger transport in the metro.
The incumbent operator has highlighted its assets in the battle for this strategic line 15, against a background of opening up to competition: the size of its existing network and the multiple possible interconnections, as a result, with line 15, which will be connected with most of the current metro and RER lines. The contract was defined for a period of at least six years, potentially renewable once (for a maximum of three years).
Opening up to competition
Difficult for the RATP not to rub its hands, it which has also been appointed manager of all the infrastructure of the Grand Paris Express, as well as its security agents.
Another reason for satisfaction: this decision, if it is confirmed by the vote of the board of directors this morning, intervenes in a region where Valérie Pécresse, the president, praises and promotes competition in transport, and willingly criticizes the RATP for its malfunctions and disturbances.
In fact, the RATP does not intend to stop there. It is already in a starting position to conquer line 18, the very last of the four that make up Greater Paris, and which must connect Versailles to Orly airport, via Massy TGV.
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