For the president of the Ile-de-France region, the capacity of transport would be “insufficient” if the ceremony, which will take place on the Seine, brought together 600,000 people as planned.
MO12345LEMONDE with AFP
The president of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse (LR), asks that the gauge of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024 or “less than 500,000” people instead of 600,000 currently scheduled, said his entourage on Monday, February 13, at the France Press agency. She exhibited this position during a mobility committee which brought together on Monday all the players in the transport of the games.
Mrs. Pécresse highlights the fact that the ceremony will take place on the Seine in the center of Paris “a Friday evening of hunting” vacation, and that that day will be marked by “the closure of almost all The bridges “, the metro being” the only solution to cross the Seine “. She believes that the capacity of transport will be “insufficient” with a gauge at 600,000 people, with a “risk of crowd movement”.
In the fall of 2022, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that 35,000 police officers would be mobilized for the ceremony. But, it continues to be the subject of “difficult discussions”, in particular between the State, the Paris town hall, the police headquarters and the organizers, recently told AFP one of these protagonists.
On the possibility of transport overnight during the Games, Ms. Pécresse said “resuming the alerts of infrastructure managers” on “the operational impossibility of such a choice” because it “would remove any capacity to achieve A number of current operating and maintenance operations “, still according to those around him. She also clarified that it will be impossible to mobilize the necessary agents “.
She also indicated that Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), which she chairs, gave her transport plan at the end of 2022.
In addition to the public transport offer for spectators, buses will be used to transport the 200,000 accredited people (athletes, teams, media, etc.). The “responses to the call for tenders for the transport of accredited are being examined and the signing of contracts will take place before mid-April,” she said. A first call for tenders had been unsuccessful.
She also proposed to the Ministry of the Interior “7,000 boarding places to accommodate the police” during the Olympic Games and “up to 500 places for bus drivers”. Indeed, several thousand homes will be necessary in the summer of 2024 to house police officers, private security agents, volunteers who do not reside in the region.