Will public transport be ready on time for the Olympics? – Technologist

The promises were impressive. In 2024, when the Olympic flame would be lit in Paris, 100 years after the 1924 Games, visitors arriving at the Charles-de-Gaulle airport would reach the capital in 20 minutes on board a direct train, the Charles-de-Gaulle Express. From Orly, in the south, the Orlyval would be a thing of the past: Line 14 would run without detour to the center of Paris. Tourists wishing to discover the urbanism of La Défense and watch the swimming competitions taking place there would have a choice between the RER A or the brand-new E line, the latest addition to the network, terminating at Mantes-la-Jolie, west of Paris.

In the suburbs, lines 15, 16 and 17 of the Grand Paris Express – eventually four new metro lines (200 kilometers) and 68 stations grafted onto the historic network – would give a good idea of the revolution underway in the French metropolis, one of the best served in the world. For the duration of the Games, the system would be free of charge.

All this, along with other projects (trams and a TGV line), were included in the bid submitted by Paris in 2015 to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the Games. Today, with less than six months to go before the Olympics (July 26-August 11), the reality is no longer quite what was imagined that summer. Yesterday’s dreams have even become nightmares, with the subject of transport, along with security, one of the most tense of the preparations.

Between 800,000 and 1 million additional people are expected in France every day during the competitions. And the bar is high, with the promise of an Olympic’s first: “We’re aiming for 100% of spectators on public transport or in active mode [by bike or on foot],” said Pierre Cunéo, senior director of transport for Paris 2024, at an event designed to reassure everyone in mid-December 2023. The choice to use as many existing facilities as possible also has its downside: 25 venues will have to be served, whereas in other countries, everything was concentrated in a single location.

A cascade of derailed projects

Was France too brazen, too presumptuous, when submitting its bid? The promises were made in good faith. Only projects that were already well underway – in other words, included in the State-Region Plan Contract, or, in the case of the Grand Paris Express, supported by legislation – were selected and carried over into the bid, nine years ago. It’s unrealistic to think it’s possible to build even a single train line in seven years, the time that elapses between the announcement of the host city for the Games and the arrival of the flame. “We’re talking at least 14 years,” said Jacques Baudrier, the head of Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the organizing authority for transport in the Paris region. Nevertheless, therein perhaps lies the flaw: These famous state-region plan contracts are sometimes inflated and not always sincere.

You have 81.72% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.