The Paris 2024 Olympics are over, but that doesn’t mean we should stop breaking records. This is perhaps what Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the region’s transport authority, said.
According to the regional left-wing opposition, 354 buses were canceled on Tuesday, September 24 alone (excluding operating incidents). A single-day record which far beats a fairly recent precedent from September 17 when 270 buses had already been canceled. Figures obtained from passenger information from the 15 operators concerned, out of the 36 in the greater suburbs.
Opening up to competition called into question
According to left-wing elected officials, who expressed themselves through a press release, this situation is “directly linked to the low-cost competition orchestrated since 2021” and the consequence “of the political choices of the regional right”.
The main cause is the shortage of bus drivers which continues, “despite the reassuring words” of Valérie Pécresse who explained at the end of August that “the shortage of bus drivers is behind us”, explains Céline Malisé , president of the Communist Left, Ecologist and Citizen group at the Regional Council.
“It is no longer rare to count more than 100 buses canceled per day”
Faced with this situation, the regional opposition, through a letter addressed to Valérie Pécresse this Monday, September 30, requested emergency measures, in particular “the hearing of the operators concerned” and “the reimbursement of subscriptions of the users concerned”.
“It is no longer rare to count more than 100 buses canceled per day on the bus networks of the greater suburbs […] In recent weeks, the situation has worsened particularly on the networks of Cergy-Pontoise Confluence, Vélizy Vallées, Argenteuil Boucles de Seine, Bièvre, Center and Sud Yvelines, Evry Center Essonne, Roissy Est, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Ile-de-France West, STBC, Poissy – Les Mureaux, Haut Val-d’Oise, Paris Saclay, Val d’Yerres Val de Seine and Essonne South West,” the left is alarmed.
IDFM wants to be reassuring
Contacted by 20 MinutesIDFM ensures that it is “aware of the disruption to the daily lives of travelers”, “particularly pupils and students from the Ile-de-France region”, and reminds operators “of their contractual commitments so that the requested offer is ensured”, with the priority of ensuring the races serving schools.
The regional transport authority, however, recalls that the number of trips made by bus operators in the greater suburbs is “on average 60,000 each day” and that the offer not made that day represents “only a tiny part ( less than 0.5%) of the overall supply.
In addition, IDFM adds that “meetings with operators and communities take place to “find solutions” and cites as an example the territory of Cergy-Pontoise Confluence, “which has been the subject of an evolution of the offer of buses representing nearly 300,000 additional commercial kilometers per year and a renumbering of 32 lines in order to improve the readability of bus lines in the territory.
