In Paris and the inner suburbs, the bus network is opening up to competition

What will the bus network look like in Paris and its (more or less) inner suburbs after the end of the RATP monopoly? First elements of response this Tuesday, November 12, with a vote by the board of directors of Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) relating to three of the 13 lots put in competition.

Unless there are any surprises, the organizing authority for Ile-de-France transport should follow the recommendations made to it internally, within the framework of calls for tenders, on the basis of precise specifications. The RATP should continue to operate buses within two of these lots: on the one hand, Pleyel-Asnières, to the northwest of the capital; on the other hand, on the opposite side, Bords de Marne-Saint-Maur.

300 RATP employees forced to change employers

Only one lot should thus escape the historical management for the moment: that which includes Bussy-Saint-Georges and four other depots, already in the hands of another operator, Transdev. This lot, straddling Seine-Seine-Denis, Val-de-Marne and Seine-et-Marne, should return to Keolis, for operation to begin at the end of 2025.

The subsidiary of SNCF and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has already been entrusted with lines 16, 17 and 18 of the future Grand Paris Express metro, which is due to open gradually from the end of 2025. RATP, it will have to be content with a single line, the longest (33 km) and undoubtedly the busiest (one and a half million passengers expected every day), the 15, which will surround the capital.

For now, no big bang

If we stick only to the buses of Paris and its suburbs, it is difficult for the moment to speak of a big bang. Let’s say instead that the network is opening up to competition. Of the 1,800 RATP agents affected by the three batches, only 300, attached to the Bussy depot, would ultimately have to change employers, while retaining some of their benefits (job guarantee, affiliation to the special retirement plan, guarantee of the level of remuneration during the seven years of the new contract). “The award criteria have been developed in such a way as to avoid the slightest social regression”assure-t-on chez IDFM.

The allocation of these three lots marks a very first step, before the fate of the 10 other public service delegations is decided. In particular, the two lots which concern intra-muros Paris will be closely scrutinized and which, according to a person involved in the matter, turn out to be “the most technical”.

A rescheduled calendar to accommodate the Olympics

Initially, the entire Paris and nearby suburbs network was to switch to a competition regime from the start of 2025 (as is already the case in the outer suburbs, where 36 public service delegations have been granted since 2021, with lines distributed between different operators, Transdev, Keolis, Lacroix-Savac and RATP). But some political leaders like the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo feared that this construction site, a source of tension among RATP employees, would disrupt the holding of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Minister for Transport, Clément Beaune, even said he was ready, in the columns of The Crossto extend the RATP monopoly.

An agreement was finally reached with regional president Valérie Pécresse, decision-maker in regional transport, and who relies heavily on competition to improve, as in the outer suburbs, the rate of service provided and more generally the quality of the lines: the allocation of lots will be carried out gradually no later than 2025 with effective implementation no later than the end of 2026.