Stopped net by confinement, the sites for the accessibility of stations have resumed in the Paris region. Target set by Île-de-France Mobilities : 60% of the Ile-de-France rail network accessible to people with reduced mobility by 2024. An ambitious schedule with regard to construction sites.
–
A vast concrete and steel structure is being assembled near Saint-Denis station. From afar, it looks like a building emerging from the ground. In reality, this is the future giant underground passage intended to facilitate the circulation of travelers in one of the ten busiest stations in Île-de-France.
A book, which will be “ripped“, that is to say, slipped, in just a few hours, under the railways at the end of the summer of 2020. A colossal undertaking, like the program for the accessibility of Île-de- France : 268 stations, SNCF and RATP combined, must be accessible to people with reduced mobility for the Paris Olympics. Or a station to be delivered every three weeks, by 2024.
The open-air construction of the future underground passage of the Saint-Denis station, in Seine-Saint-Denis, in June 2020.
•
© O. Badin
–
In Saint-Denis, the 10-meter wide underground is one of the many works on this modernization site of the Saint-Denis / L’Île-Saint-Denis station. With 90,000 daily travelers, it is an essential connection node between lines H of the Transilien and RER D. Not to mention the Thalys, Eurostar and other TGVs which cross the station every day.
Recurring problem in Île-de-France stations: platform heights, unsuitable for rolling stock, such as “Ile-de-France” type trainsets. “Today, the platform is low. Our goal is to raise the platform by 30 to 40 centimeters so that it arrives at the right height“, Explain Jimmy Thibault, director of operations at SNCF Réseau.
At the Saint-Denis station, on line H of the Transilien, the platforms will be raised by 30 to 40 centimeters to allow access for wheelchair users.
•
© O. Badin
–
Target: 60% of the rail network accessible for the 2024 Olympic Games
Covid-19 epidemic requires, work was however interrupted during the first month of containment. At the time of recovery, the roadmap remains full: make 60% of the rail network accessible to people with disabilities, by the time of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. An obligation made by Île-de-France Mobilités, the regulatory authority for transport in the Paris region, by means of 1.4 billion euros.
SNCF must therefore set up 209 stations, “or 95% of passenger traffic“, Explain Martine Berçot, deputy director of the SNCF Île-de-France accessibility program. Installation of elevators and escalators, inclined forecourt, raised platforms, widened passages … Between 2009 and 2019, “107 stations have been made accessible“, specifies Martine Berçot, about sixty SNCF stations being under construction this year.
In many stations, the main work was carried out in a year or two. But to get the elevators open, you have to wait several months, even several years!
However, these arrangements are not always satisfactory for transport users. “In many stations, the main work was carried out in a year or two. But to get the elevators open, you have to wait several months, even several years!“, laments Marc Pélissier, President of the National Federation of Transport User Associations (FNAUT) Île-de-France.
Alma Bridge #RERC: work on the main access has progressed, but the end date with the commissioning of the elevators remains unknown … pic.twitter.com/eZtmJONOjX
– AUT FNAUT IdF (@Asso_usagersidf) June 19, 2020
This is the case along the RER C, at Javel station, whose elevators remain blocked by construction barriers, despite the end of the accessibility work planned initially … in 2018. Or, at the Pont de l’Alma station: here again, the date of “Elevator commissioning remains unknown“, notes the FNAUT.
“There was a delay in the implementation of the funding. It is now acquired“, continues Marc Pélissier.”On the other hand, the works are simultaneous with other equally urgent needs, such as the regeneration of the network, the interconnection with Grand Paris, etc. SNCF Réseau has a lot to do“, he admits. Delays in the schedule closely scrutinized by Île-de-France Mobilités, which does not hesitate to remind SNCF Réseau of its obligations.
4 Ile-de-France residents out of 10 with reduced mobility
The stakes are indeed high for the Paris region. According to a 2014 study by Île-de-France Mobilités, while 4.7% of Ile-de-France residents have a recognized disability, four out of ten inhabitants of the Paris region are in reality “in a situation of reduced mobility on a given day“. They can be people with disabilities, pregnant women, or travelers carrying bulky luggage.
“There are stations that are impossible to fit out. The APF is considering it. But we ask that the stations that can be“, Explain Pierre-Emmanuel Robert, of APF France handicap, which cites as an example “well thought out“recent from Luxembourg station on the RER B.
What explains the insufficient level of accessibility in France in 2020? This is a question that I have asked myself for a long time.
There remains an observation for the Association of the paralyzed in France: “The general inertia of society“when it comes to disability.”What explains the insufficient level of accessibility in France in 2020? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself for a long time“, Pierre-Emmanuel Robert analysis. Handicap law of 2005, accessibility master plan in Ile-de-France transport of 2015 … Between the texts and the implementation, there is a long way to go.
This week, #Parigo takes you to the heart of the worksites @SNCFReseau @GdParisExpress & @RATPgroup
► On the menu: #CDGExpress, #RERB, # line14, # line4, # line12, # accessibility
► RDV this Saturday at 12:05 pm on @ France3Paris then here https://t.co/04jBV5CiVi#SNCF #transports #Paris pic.twitter.com/ziYLOFRF6q
— Bertrand Lambert (@B_Lambert75) June 25, 2020
–
