A crucial issue for the Paris Games in 2024, the Ile-de-France transport system is being closely scrutinized in particular so that its poor accessibility can be improved, particularly in view of the Paralympic Games in a year’s time.
Whether you have a loose knee, a stroller, or have a disability, the Paris metro is hell. According to APF France Handicap, 350,000 people with disabilities are expected to attend the 2024 Summer Games. According to figures from Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), which organizes transport in the region, 9% of the metro is currently accessible. This is mainly line 14 in reality, part of the extension of which must be completed in extremis in June 2024, which will increase the rate to 14%.
32 metro stations “will be accessible in 2024”, as well as “28 RER stations”, specified the vice-president of IDFM, Grégoire de Lasteyrie, during a press briefing organized by the organizing committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympics. 268 SNCF and metro stations should finally be in IDF in 2024. Studies “show” that on the old metro lines – some are over 100 years old – “if we tried to widen corridors or put elevators , there are risks of collapses, technical impossibilities which are strong”, he explained, also citing the fact that stations are classified as Historic Monuments.
In addition, “these are works that would take 7 to 10 years per line”, with “an extremely high cost”, added this regional elected official, to explain the very low accessibility of the Paris metro. Staff will be trained “to support people with disabilities in the best conditions”. A plan for sound and visual accessibility must be announced in September with the RATP and the SNCF. “We will not be perfect for these Games, let’s be clear (..) We know it’s impossible given the urban transport network that is ours”, conceded Emmanuel Macron last March, referring in particular to the problems of ‘accessibility.
For spectators in wheelchairs, a shuttle system is provided to transport three to four people in wheelchairs and accompanying persons. They will depart from major Parisian stations. IDFM estimated that 4,000 people per day would be affected during the period of the Olympic Games (July 26-August 11) and 2,500 during the Paralympic Games. In addition, the State has set up financial aid to increase the Parisian fleet of accessible taxis from 200 to 1,000.
For their part, the 4,400 or so Paralympic athletes will use “transformed buses” which will use the Olympic lanes to get to the competition sites. Parisian buses are accessible but the Paris City Hall has carried out work “this summer and until April 2024” so that the bus stops themselves are well accessible (300 this summer and a hundred by spring 2024 ), said Lamia El Aaraje, deputy mayor of Paris, for an amount of 13 million euros. In the fall of 2022, the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune had reported on the “delay in the accessibility objectives in transport and stations in particular”.
