The Paris site visits took place on the afternoon of Thursday, December 2nd 2004 and involved trips to:

• The major public transport interchange at La Défense.
• The fully automated Metro Line 14 and its control room.
• The information call centre for Infomobi, a call centre dedicated to people with reduced mobility.

In addition to the site visits, the group received a presentation from Isabelle Bachmann about the loyalty programmes which are operated by RATP. The remainder of this section of the report outlines the site visits and presentations received

Site Visit 1: La Défense

The working group visited the multimodal public transport interchange at La Défense which, along with the station at Châtelet, is one of the busiest interchanges in Paris. The interchange handles approximately 450,000 people per day, many of whom are commuters accessing the modern commercial centre of La Défense, while others use the station as a point of access to the city of Paris and its public transport network. The station links bus services with RER line A, Metro line 1 and Tram route 2 and also serves the tourist demand, being the closest station to “la Grande Arche”.

One of the interesting aspects of the interchange at La Défense is that the space is shared between the public transport infrastructure and retail outlets. The main concourse is set out as a tunnel, with the space at the sides being devoted to retail activity and access to the RER and metro network in the centre (see figures 1.1 and 1.2).

As shown by the diagram in figure 1.2, the information provided for travellers at La Défense interchange is multimodal. The real-time departures for all modes are visually displayed by the departure board on the concourse wall (see figure 1.3) and this includes buses as well as metro, tram and RER. In addition to this the integrated information centre, located in the middle of the concourse, is staffed by employees from RATP, SNCF and OPTILE (the group of independent bus operators in Paris), see figure 1.4. As a result information is available for all modes of transport within central Paris, irrespective of the operator that serves the route. This avoids the need for three different information kiosks (i.e. one per set of operators) and the emphasis has been placed on de-branding the provision of public transport information in order that the service offered is of greatest benefit to passengers. This approach follows the logic that a person is not necessarily interested in who operates their service, but they are interested in being able to access relevant public transport information.

As well as visiting the information centre the group saw the bus loading areas of the interchange. These have been integrated within the main station, in the manner of an airport terminal, in order to make access to the buses much safer. Figure 1.5 illustrates how the buses are incorporated into the main terminal in order to prevent the need for passengers to cross roads or encounter any road traffic. This greatly improves the loading and unloading of buses and improves the image of using the bus, because you no longer have to go "outside" to wait in the cold or rain for the bus, it is actually accessed within the interchange. In addition, the bus departures are all visibly displayed in real time by each of the gates (see figure 1.6) which further improves the ease with which passengers are able to interchange between modes at La Défense.

Finally, the working group visited the CCTV observation centre at La Défense interchange, where they were briefed about the role of the observation room and the role the emergency team plays in being able to respond quickly to any incidents.

Site Visit 2: Metro line 14

The second site visit in Paris involved a trip from Gare de Lyon to Bercy on the fully automated metro line 14. The line represents the newest metro line in Paris and was the first new metro line to be built for 60 years. Opened in 1998 and completed to its current level in 2003, the line is also the first in the city which is driverless in its operation and controlled remotely by computer. The fact that there are no drivers means that a greater frequency of service can be provided, with the headway between services being as low as 1 minute. The lack of drivers also makes it possible for the platforms to be shielded from the arriving and departing trains, with an additional set of doors preventing people and objects from falling onto the track between the platform edge and the train. This greatly improves the operational reliability of the services and the doors are illustrated in figure 1.7:

Figure 1.7: The metro line 14 station at Gare de Lyon

The fact that the metro line is entirely new means that all of the stations are also very modern, with next train/second train real time information on all platforms and many of the stations have been designed to provide an architectural interest too. There are plans to extend the existing line 14 to widen the congestion relieving effect is has had upon metro line 1 and the RER line A in central Paris.

RATP is also investigating the feasibility of upgrading the existing lines in order to widen the scope of driverless operation and fully automated metro systems to the city’s “classic” lines. The main issues with such an approach are the need to overcome technical difficulties which relate to the application of automated technologies with older rolling stock and also the potential labour issues with drivers who may feel they are being displaced as a result of increased automation. A potential method of automating the existing network is to remove the number of lines which have braches to them (such as line 13) by segregating the lines into two and automating both of them.

The final part of this site visit was spent at the control room for metro line 14, where the group learned how as little as two people could operate the line, although on a normal day there are four operators in the room.

Site Visit 3: Infomobi call centre

The final site visit on Thursday December 2nd was to the call centre for the Infomobi service, which is a telephone/e-mail/website information service for people with reduced mobility living in the Ile de France region (see www.infomobi.com). The service is reasonably new and is still being improved, but nonetheless already handles approximately 340 calls per month. The group were given a useful demonstration about how the call centre operators worked and how they would handle calls in order to help someone plan their route. The operators at the call centre also demonstrated how they were able to give detailed information of walking distances, lift locations and where people could seek assistance during their journey. One of the most important outcomes of the scheme is that disabled travellers are empowered to travel by public transport in Paris through better knowledge. The depth of Infomobi is such that it can provide up-to-date service information about elevators in a specific station, which is reassuring for wheelchair users to know before they travel.

One of the current drawbacks to the users of this system is that they cannot book demand responsive systems at the same time as they are requesting public transport information. As a result the callers have to be transferred to the demand responsive transport operators, or re-dial the number. This is seen as a barrier which deters people from using the service and one of the aims for the near future is to provide an integrated service in terms of handling bookings for the demand responsive transport service.

Presentation of RATP loyalty programme “IMAGIN R”

On Friday December 3rd 2004, the group received a presentation about the loyalty programme Imagin R’ which has been set up by the public transport operators in Paris, primarily RATP. The presentation focused specifically upon the concessions offered to younger people in Paris and as a result of the loyalty programme. Prior to Imagin R’, which was introduced in 1998, there was no public transport fare package for younger people in Paris. As a result this scheme is the first to offer younger people discounted travel (between 30% and 50% reduction) in the city of Paris and this is possible due to the support the scheme receives from STIF, the Region Ile de France and surrounding Départements. The scheme was one of the first integrated tickets to be introduced in the Ile de France region and it permits young people to benefit from the discounted fares during the week and at weekends, irrespective of the zones they travel in.

The scheme is aimed at two key groups; juniors (aged 12-26) and majors (aged 26+) and the core target is the 900,00 people aged 10-25 that live in Paris. The mission statement for Imagin R’ is “We can help you go further during your free time” and the success of the scheme can be measured by the 75% penetration rate of the core market (680,000 card holders). This success has partially been attributed to the effort that has gone in to branding public transport to make it attractive for younger people. This has been achieved through positive advertising, focusing on full mobility, living life to the full and making people happy, which has been coupled to attractive offers and good deals. These have included promotional ties between RATP and partners such as cinema chains, McDonalds, clothes retailers and Euro Disney. Offers like these, and the publicity generated by the advertising, support one of the core themes based around respect for the Imagin R’ brand.

If the Imagin R’ brand continues to be perceived as “cool” the logic is that the healthy following already established among young people will be maintained. In order to maintain the freshness of the product, RATP seeks to improve Imagin R’ for its users on an annual basis. In addition to this the Imagin R’ website (http://www.imagine-r.com) is used to advertise short term offers and events. One of the current aims for the development of the scheme is for RATP to further utilise the database of young people that they have developed in order to address and improve perceptions of public transport, as well as engaging younger people in public transport issues. In part this has already been realised through the “Integrale” scheme, which focuses on people aged 26 and over who have been used to the promotions and reductions offered by Imagin R’. The aim is to keep people interested in public transport after the age of 26, because there is a perception that once people no longer qualify for the reduced fares and promotional offers they stop using public transport.