lThe “metro for all”, with easy access for disabled people, families with prams or tourists with large suitcases within twenty years. This is the ambitious project that Valérie Pécresse, president (Les Républicains) of the Ile-de-France region and of the transport organising authority Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), wants to initiate.
It is counting on the exceptional images of Paralympic sport during the Paris 2024 Games to secure the funding and regulatory changes necessary to implement this promise, which will take at least two decades… It estimates the cost of this commitment at between 15 and 20 billion euros. The IDFM and the region cannot achieve this alone. It has therefore launched an appeal to share the effort on three levels: with the State and the City of Paris. This is the first prerequisite for its progress.
This “outstretched hand”The first to be launched on 9 August was not initially taken up by anyone. Stubborn, Valérie Pécresse renewed her call loud and clear on 26 August, just before the start of the Paralympic Games. She ended up obtaining the symbolic support of two ministers who resigned from Attal’s government – Patrice Vergriete for Transport and Fadila Khattabi, in charge of people with disabilities – but not the immediate support of the Mayor of Paris: Lamia El Aaraje, Anne’s vice-president. Hidalgo preferred to refer the issue to the Accessible Mobility Day that she is organising on 3 December for further refinement.
Too late, according to the APF France Handicap association, which fought to get everyone to sit down at the table immediately. “There are many compartmentalisations in France. They are the ones who prevent things from moving forward.”“Says Pascale Ribes, its president. Skipping them is the second prerequisite. On September 5, at the headquarters of the association, a methodological pact involving the region, the city of Paris and the associations was finally signed. In order to participate in the financing, Lamia El Aaraje plans to increase the tourist tax in Paris again. We are now awaiting the position of Michel Barnier’s government.
Strategic points
For the Paralympic Games, transport accessibility has already taken a leap forward. Ile-de-France has invested €2.6 billion to make 240 stations accessible, five times more than in 2016, through which 95% of traffic passes. The city of Paris has also made great strides in financing the tramway and improving bus stops. The State has subsidised the growth of the fleet of taxis capable of transporting people with reduced mobility: before the Games there were 200, now there are almost a thousand. But on the metro, the increase in the number of accessible stations (29 out of 303) is mainly due to the arrival of new lines, such as 14, or the extension of old ones, such as 4 (to Bagneux, in Hauts-de-Seine) or 11 (and its five new stops between Mairie-des-Lilas and Rosny-Bois-Perrier, in Seine-Saint-Denis).
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