We're mobilised

Updated 24 March

This past January, the Île-de-France Mobilités Board of Directors conducted a hearing with transport operators to determine the production, punctuality and service quality status of transport in the Île-de-France region, and to set out various measures aimed at improving the situation in the first quarter of 2023. 

On Friday, 24 March 2023, RATP Chief Executive Officer Jean Castex was once again questioned together with the other operators in the Île-de-France region to find out the status of the implemented mobilization and its outcome. At the end of March, RATP reported significantly higher service offer and quality over the first quarter. Mobilization is ongoing to consolidate the trend over the entire network. 
 
Trams: service offer is now close to 100%. 
 
Buses: while we were at 73% of production in September, we reached 86.4% in February and even 88.2% on 12 March, meaning a 13-point rise in 6 months. 

 
Metro: the metro’s peak hour performance has reached its objective or is significantly moving upwards on 11 metro lines. Overall, we are close to 94% of production (93.8%), up 4 points from December 2022. Mobilization continues on the most affected metro lines, with notable improvements already made. Metro lines 10 and 12 have already gained 15 and 10 production points respectively. Metro line 12 remains a high priority to receive newly trained drivers and personnel from other workshops, who will strengthen maintenance teams and accelerate the provision of trains. As for metro line 8, its improved service offer remains somewhat slow (89.5%, up 10 points from December 2022), due to aging rolling stock and infrastructure.

 
RER: we have exceeded 95% of production on RER line A after notable difficulties in January and February, due to extreme cold causing cracks in rails, and a higher number of interruptions due to passenger health issues. On RER line B, production for February stood at 91.6% – an unsatisfactory level, affected in particular by the strikes during the early part of the year.

 
These results were achieved through the company’s large-scale mobilization with a solid action plan, in particular, the roll-out of an ambitious hiring policy, and the planned recruitment of 6,600 new employees in 2023 throughout the Île-de-France region. The breakdown of this hiring objective includes 2,300 bus drivers, 700 station staff members, 620 maintenance staff, 400 metro drivers and 120 security officers. Applications from over 18,000 candidates were received over 2 months, and 650 bus drivers have been hired since the beginning of the year. 1,000 applications were received for metro driver positions.
 
RATP also intends to continue working on areas with a heavy impact on traffic, notably passenger health issues and unattended belongings:

• In agreement with IDFM, new facilities have been chosen for canine detection teams in the most affected stations and terminuses (Balard, Bagneux, Saint-Denis Université and Trocadéro).
• A communication campaign will be launched again to target forgotten or unattended belongings.
• A new agreement is underway with the SAMU (emergency services) and BSPP (Paris fire brigade) to improve response time and the management of passengers with health issues. We are also looking to embed civilian protection teams in addition to the two existing sites at Gare du Nord and Châtelet stations.

To step up the prevention of unauthorized access to tracks, the company will install track separators on metro lines 5, 7 and 12, as well as in some metro line 2, 8 and 9 stations. The list of stations concerned is being finalized with Île-de-France Mobilités.
 
To conclude, the company has also made the decision to enforce an ambitious wage policy to maintain the attractiveness of its professions. In addition to this scheme, a policy to improve quality of life at work has also been implemented, with the aim of raising employee loyalty. To keep attracting talent, the company’s teams continue to be mobilized with all our measures gaining traction.

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Actions implemented between February and March 2023

You can find below actions implemented since the beginning of the year.

Traffic conditions on the network have not been optimal over the past few months. Let us explain.

This is due to multiple factors: 

• External factors:

- As traffic frequency goes back up, passenger incidents have increased accordingly. Concretely, this leads to traffic being slowed down or interrupted.

- There have been 4 times as many incidents of unattended objects recorded since 2019, a factor that makes service suspensions more frequent. On average, unattended luggage corresponds to an hour of disrupted traffic. 

•    Internal factors: 
- Recruitment.  We have been facing challenges in hiring for driving and maintenance positions in a tense job market, and have been dealing with higher absenteeism and an increase in resignations amidst rising inflation and tougher competition. 

- The social climate.

- Unavailable rolling stock, notably on metro lines       due to a lack of maintenance staff;

- The impact of ongoing upgrading and extension works on several metro lines, including metro lines     .

• Recruitment 

We have been facing challenges in hiring for driving and maintenance positions in a tense job market, and have been dealing with higher absenteeism and an increase in resignations amidst rising inflation and tougher competition. 
To tackle these challenges, we have been deploying significant efforts to hire and train new drivers. 1,500 bus drivers and 180 metro drivers were already hired in 2022. In 2022, 13 additional training courses were conducted for metro drivers, including night course sessions from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. 

In 2023, we expect to hire more than 6,600 new employees at RATP group in Paris Region (4,900 permanent contracts, 1,000 work-study contracts, 700 insertion contracts).
To meet these recruitment requirements, we have been intensifying our sourcing and communication efforts with related mass communication campaigns, job dating and employment forums, among other measures. We have also been facilitating access to work-study schemes and on-the-job learning to broaden talent pools, and have lowered the minimum age of bus drivers from 21 to 18 years. At the same time, we have developed partnerships with Pôle emploi (French job seekers’ office) agencies, set up sponsorship/co-opting initiatives for new hires, and enhanced our training resources. 
View our job offers here.

@leparisien On est allés à l’école des conducteurs du métro parisien, et dans leur énorme simulateur grandeur nature #metro #paris #ratp #iledefrance ♬ original sound - Le Parisien

• Additional backup for train maintenance 

Due to the shortage of maintenance personnel, there is a corresponding unavailability of rolling stock, as is notably the case on metro lines     . To compensate for these inconveniences, and in addition to our recruitment drive, we intend to give priority to staff and maintenance activities on the lines in question. Furthermore, we have built up our resources, increased maintenance activities on Saturdays and hired temporary staff. 

• Improvement of the social climate and working conditions

Two agreements were recently signed with labour union organisations, proof of renewed social dialogue.
The first agreement, which was reached in early January 2023, modifies bus and tram drivers’ work schedules and hours. 
In addition, mandatory annual negotiations were moved forward by two months to meet the strong expectations of employees with the lowest salaries, and raise salaries for professions experiencing shortages.
These are two of the key components in the company’s action plan aiming to restore production levels and service quality as quickly as possible for the benefit of passengers.
In the meantime, efforts are underway to offer more social housing to new hires or employees in financial distress, to keep their commutes as short as possible between their homes and jobs.

• Reduced response times for suspicious packages

As traffic frequency goes back up, passenger incidents have increased accordingly. There have been 4 times as many incidents of unattended objects recorded since 2019, a factor that makes service suspensions more frequent. For better efficiency when such incidents occur, we have started to introduce more sniffer dog teams consisting of trained dogs and their handlers, to shorten the response times when unattended objects are reported. Additionally, the northern branches of metro lines      will be equipped with track barriers to restrict unauthorised entry into tunnels. Currently, we are looking into the feasibility of setting up an emergency service à Gare du Nord and Châtelet stations to respond more quickly when passenger health issues occur, so that traffic can recover more quickly. 

• Mobilised teams

Several metro lines such as lines    , and  are currently undergoing major upgrading and extension works. Due to these works, lines also close earlier in the evenings. 

- Metro line    has been extended south to the Bagneux – Lucie Aubrac station since May 2022. Eventually, the full automation of the line involving the roll out of fully automated MP14 trains is set to take place at the end of 2023. For further information on the automation of metro line 4, click here

- The extension of metro line   is expected to start running by spring 2024. The extension from Mairie des Lilas to Rosny-Bois Perrier includes the creation of six new stations and the deployment of brand new trains financed by Île-de-France Mobilités. For further information, click here 

- The southern and northern extension of metro line   are set to be commissioned by 2024. The extended line will also run additional automated trains and connect Aéroport d’Orly and Saint-Denis Pleyel stations in 40 minutes. For more information, click here

- Enhanced comfort on metro line   . The new metro line 6 trains, financed by Île-de-France Mobilités, have been commissioned incrementally since January 2023. The deployment of the 47 trains comprising the overall fleet will continue to take place in increments until 2026. For more information, click here

In the long run, these works will allow millions of passengers to travel more smoothly on a daily basis. The upgrading of these metro lines’ rolling stock provides passengers with increased comfort. 
 

Lines facing issues will benefit from specific plans aiming for service to go back to normal as quickly as possible. 

In the short term, several measures have been implemented to increase the service offering: drivers who complete their training are assigned to this line as a priority. Furthermore, new employees are set to join its maintenance workshop as we study the possibility of creating a night maintenance team to carry out preventive maintenance.
In the medium term, new rolling stock will replace current trains by 2026-2030. The goal is to provide passengers with more comfort and trains that are more environmentally friendly. 

To increase the service offering as quickly as possible, drivers who complete their training are assigned to this line as a priority, as is the case for metro line 12. Another issue is the age of the trains in operation. In the short term, the MF77 rolling stock is set to be upgraded and the number of trains in reserve to be increased.
In the medium term, the trains will be replaced with new MF19 rolling stock, which are more comfortable and environmentally friendly, by 2026-2030.

On Metro line  , several short-term measures have been implemented to increase the offering. Drivers who have completed their training are assigned to this line as a priority, as is the case for metro lines 8 and 12. Another issue is incidents related to unauthorised entry on tracks. The northern branch of your metro line will be equipped with track barriers to restrict unauthorised entry into tunnels. In addition, new staff will start working at the maintenance workshop. Cleaning teams will be reinforced as well to improve comfort in trains and stations. 
In the medium term, new rolling stock will replace current trains by 2030. The goal is to improve passenger comfort and make trains more environmentally friendly.

RER line   
In 2022, only 85.7% of scheduled trains were operated. In the short and medium term, our actions plan notably sets to upgrade the displays at 31 RER stations to improve passenger information. In addition, to facilitate traffic resuming in the event of incidents related to unattended luggage, K-9 units will be permanently deployed on the platforms of Gare du Nord, Châtelet, and Charles-de-Gaulle airport stations. As regards maintenance, our current efforts focus on improving rolling stock maintenance and increasing repair resources at the Mitry maintenance workshop.
To respond to the growing number of passengers on this line, Île-de-France Mobilités ordered new generation trains with more capacity and enhanced comfort. The new trains are set to be commissioned by the end of the year 2025.

Regarding other lines  
The situation has already improved since the beginning of 2023. In practice, 96% of the frequency requested was reached.

Since the beginning of 2023, 90% of buses (ordered by Île-de-France Mobilités) are running, which corresponds to a 10-point increase since the autumn of 2022. The situation has already improved. In practice, 9 out of 10 buses have been in operation since the beginning of 2023. We spare no efforts in recruiting bus drivers. In 2023, RATP plans to recruit 2,700 bus drivers. Click here to see our job offers.

“Ladies and gentlemen, traffic is suspended due to a signalling issue...” You’ve probably heard this before while travelling on our network. But what does it mean exactly? Let us explain. 

- Passenger incidents: This is defined by a passenger finding themselves unwell, ranging from overheating to heart attacks. The train needs to stop so that the driver can fulfil his obligation to tend to the passenger. If the person cannot alight the train by themselves, station staff (contacted by the driver) will be waiting with the victim for emergency services to arrive.

- Serious accidents: it can refer to anything involving a passenger, from a suicide to someone accidentally falling on the tracks or between the train and the platform.

- Operating difficulties: this type of disruption is caused by infrastructure malfunctions (switching system or equipment issues).

- Signalling system malfunctions: when a malfunction of the signalling system that manages a line’s operation is detected, the operation manager warns the train driver. The driver then needs to suspend traffic.

- Regulation measures: when a metro train is delayed, it affects the following trains. Concretely, the train following the delayed train will also be delayed. 

Regarding RER trains, there can be different types of regulation measures: cancelling a train (for further information, click here); temporarily holding a train at the station (for further information, click here); any of the various methods to get service back on track (for further information, click here). To face these many situations, operating scenarios have been implemented (for further information, click here).

This page will be regularly updated in light of the changes and improvements occurring on the network.