Valérie Pécresse affirms that the promise will be kept. According to the president of the Ile-de-France region and Ile-de-France transport, the extension of automatic metro line 14 to the north and south of Paris will be effective “at the end of June”, approximately one month before the Olympic Games.
After the T3b tramway to Porte Dauphine, which has just been inaugurated, “in May the RER E extension from Saint-Lazare to Nanterre will open. Then, at the beginning of June, the extension of metro line 11 to Rosny-Bois-Perrier and at the end of June, line 14 from Saint-Denis-Pleyel to Orly-Aéroport,” detailed Valérie Pécresse in an interview with Le Parisien published online Sunday April 28.
The line will be an essential artery for the Olympic Games, since Saint-Denis is home to several Olympic sites including the athletes’ village and the Stade de France. For years, the entire construction schedule has been set so that everything is ready before the Games. The envelope to cover the costs linked to the Olympic Games in transport was initially estimated at 200 million euros; it now amounts to 250 million euros, she specifies, explaining that “Paris 2024 asked us to do more than planned”.
Reinforced workforce
The organizer “asked for 50,000 free Navigo cards for the police, which we obviously gave” and he “also asks us to transport the 200,000 accredited”, a point which is the subject of negotiation with Paris-2024. Added to this are “JO bonuses negotiated at the RATP”.
The workforce will be reinforced. “The SNCF and the RATP told us that the recruitments have been carried out. Namely 250 additional drivers in the metro, and the SNCF will also call on around a hundred provincial drivers. As for the bus, 3,000 drivers will be mobilized.”
While one hundred celebration zones are planned throughout Ile-de-France, IDFM has planned to reinforce Noctilien buses (from 12:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m.) “including in the suburbs”. On Friday July 26, “for the opening ceremony, which should end around 11:15 p.m.,” IDFM is also studying “the possibility of leaving the three automatic metro lines (1, 4 and 14) open all night.”
To make travel easier, “the Navigo pass will be dematerialized on iPhone in May, the Transports Paris 2024 application has just been released and visitors will soon be able to purchase the Paris 2024 pass to travel during the Games,” explained Valérie Pécresse.