In the rue de Rivoli, in Paris, on April 4, 2020, during confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic. TILL JACKET / PHOTONONSTOP
It’s now quite clear! Three weeks ago, we could still wonder about the content of the message that the government was trying to send to Ile-de-France residents when Clément Beaune warned that traffic plans in Paris and its surroundings were coming. « hardcore » for the summer of 2024, during the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP). The remarks made Thursday, December 7 by the same Minister for Transport are anything but ambiguous.
His call to “no more teleworking” and to ” take [des] leave » during the Games period means saying: please do not travel or stay in the Paris region, this will make it easier for us to accommodate the 800,000 spectators expected each day… and, above all, to transport them on a network of public transport already on the verge of apoplexy in normal times and which constitutes the heart of the problem of the summer of 2024.
We are thus moving away from the assurance given, on November 29, by the Paris police prefect: “There will be no reason to leave Paris”, declared Laurent Nuñez while presenting the security and traffic perimeters during the JOP. It is the opposite that is felt today.
The succession of announcements regarding the constraints and consequences linked to or due to the Olympic event has even generated anxiety and tension, even anger. And it was not the bittersweet discussions between political leaders on the issue of transport that helped to mitigate these effects. On the contrary.
“For those who can, not everyone”
In the wake of a perspective « hardcore » depicted by Mr. Beaune, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, declaring “we’re not going to be ready” in terms of public transport, has reinforced the feeling that, for those who will be present in the Paris region in the summer of 2024, the period will be complicated; possibly expensive, too. Indeed, if on November 27 the president of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, announced the establishment of a Paris 2024 pass, it is above all her announcement of the almost doubling of the price of metro tickets during the Games which left its mark on public opinion.
If necessary, after the presentation of traffic conditions by Mr. Nuñez, a letter addressed to Mr. Beaune by the prefect of the Ile-de-France region, revealed by The chained DuckWednesday December 6, drove the point home: the prefect mentioned the fact that in certain places it will only be possible to transport JOP spectators if regular users are discouraged from traveling.
You have 35% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.