It was a campaign promise that was kept. As announced by Jérôme Baloge, elected mayor in March 2014 in the first round, Niort became in September 2017 the largest agglomeration to switch to free transport – the capital of Deux-Sèvres has since been dethroned by Dunkirk (North ).
Two years later, the town at the gates of the Poitevin Marsh is still crisscrossed by its buses with inevitable blue and yellow pastilles “100% free”. Their attendance has not exploded: the figures range from + 20% to + 30%. We are far from the Dunkirk example, which posted a spectacular + 85% on average over the week.
In a Senate information report, Charles-Eric Lemaignen, vice-president of the Grouping of Responsible Transport Authorities (GART), underlines:
“Niort, the only city to have lowered the offer at the same time as it introduced free access, is by far the city in which the increase in traffic on the transport network has been the smallest. The number of users always increases when free services are introduced, but if there is no improvement in the offer, the attendance rate then relapses. “
An opinion shared by some of Mr. Baloge’s political opponents. “He went too fast on the job, he just responded to his campaign promise. There is an absence of a global vision concerning transport ”, regrets Monique Johnson, elected Europe Ecology-The Greens in the municipal opposition and the agglomeration community, and present on a union list of the left for the municipal elections in March. According to her, the network, less efficient than before, does not encourage users to abandon the car for the benefit of public transport. “You can’t do better with less money”, she believes.
Where Dunkirk has invested massively in transport (65 million euros in two years) in parallel with free transport, the mayor and president of the agglomeration of Niort, stronghold of the large mutual insurance companies, has chosen to finance its network entirely by companies, thanks to the transport payment tax. Ticket revenues, which represented only 10% of the network’s operating cost, were not offset.
Efficiency rather than free
This choice forced the elected official to restructure the existing network, in partnership with the operating company Transdev. It has been tightened around a few structuring lines, including a main line, which serves the city from west to east. On this one, which benefits from a good frequency, the increase in traffic speaks volumes: + 130%.
You have 48.74% of this article to read. The suite is reserved for subscribers.
–
/i/2003162180.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)