Is this a first explosion of the big bang of competition in public transport in Ile-de-France or a fanfare launch of the 2021 regional election campaign? The president of the regional council and the transport union Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), Valérie Pécresse (ex-LR), created the surprise, by announcing, Wednesday, February 5, in The Parisian, his wish to greatly speed up the process of bringing metros, RERs and Transilien regional trains into competition.
A wish officially motivated by “The painful episode” strike movements in December 2019 and January. And translated the same morning by a vote on the board of directors of IDFM. The transport organizing authority has decided to launch the process without delay to put part of the SNCF Transilien lines into competition from 2023. And has “Seized the government of a request for modification of the law to accelerate the opening to competition of the RER, trams and subways before 2030”.
“It’s a real break: Valérie Pécresse takes the pretext of the strike to launch her election campaign in the Margaret Thatcher way, with an irresponsible decision that will destabilize the SNCF and the RATP, and, ultimately, break the transport system by common “, wins Jacques Baudrier, counselor (PCF) of Paris and director of IDFM.
“Lower costs” and “increase quality of service”
The competition must “Lower costs” and “Increase the quality of service”, on the contrary believes Mme Pécresse. “Opening up to competition is not privatization. The lines could still be operated by SNCF or RATP, but they would be forced to improve their offer to be competitive with other operators, public or private “, she says in The Parisian.
The first target of this accelerator: the SNCF, at a time when the renegotiation for four years of the contract which unites them has severely degraded relations between the railway company and the transport authority. The law for a new railway pact allows all regions to open up the operation of local lines to competition. In Ile-de-France, eight Transilien lines can be from 1st January 2023. For the president of the transport union, no question of procrastinating.
IDFM adopted a timetable on Wednesday which plans to identify priority lines this year; launch, in 2021, a call for expressions of interest to discuss with potential candidates; and to conduct, in 2022, a call for tenders to designate the operator. Without waiting for these studies, Mme Pécresse evokes, in The Parisian, the opening to competition, in 2023, of “Lines R and J, where [il y] at [un] need to improve services “.
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