The question is no longer whether there will be an increase in the Navigo pass, but by how much. Valérie Pécresse, the president of Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the transport organizing authority, claims to need an additional 950 million euros in 2023 due to the explosion in energy costs. On Wednesday evening, an LR amendment to the finance bill proposed to increase the mobility payment, which would have had the effect of limiting the increase in the Navigo pass to 5 euros. But the text, which the government opposed, was rejected by senators. We are therefore heading towards a scenario of 90 euros per month which should be acted upon during a board meeting on December 7. David Belliard, EELV deputy for roads at the Paris City Hall and vice-president of IDFM gives us his feelings on the situation.
How do you react to the likely increase in the Navigo pass to 90 euros?
This increase in the Navigo pass is both unfair and completely absurd. We are saying that in a world where climate change is accelerating and where we need to move towards mobility that is as clean as possible, we are going to call on those who, every day, have the courage to take public transport, i.e. less carbon-intensive mobility which also suffers from the deterioration in the quality of public transport. It’s absurd. And it’s unfair because we’re penalizing people who either don’t have the choice or don’t have the means to use other types of mobility. At the same time, and to put it into perspective, we put 7.5 billion euros to help pay for the gasoline for the cars, this is historical nonsense.
Who is responsible for the increase? Inflation, IDFM, the government?
What we pay for are the political choices that have been made, in particular by the regional right and Valérie Pécresse, and the total inaction of the government. The difficult financial situation of transport and IDFM has been known for a very long time. It has been more than two years since the elected environmentalists and leftists on the IDFM board of directors have been asking for in-depth work on the financing of public transport since the Covid-19 crisis. Without answer. Today there is a lack of anticipation from Valérie Pécresse, who bears a heavy responsibility for this increase.
How then to finance public transport?
There is an easily actionable lever: blowing up the mobility payment ceilings, which involves companies. It was a request from IDFM since we had obtained the vote of support for this measure at a previous board meeting. The Renaissance and LR groups in the Senate opposed this increase which could have avoided the increase in the price of the Navigo pass. These people, whether the government or the right, have made the choice not to ask companies for additional effort and to let users pay when they are already packed like sardines in public transport that does not work. not. We are in an unjust and absurd world.
Do you have other ways to finance public transport?
In the very short term, the only one who can act is the government. Clement Beaune [le ministre des Transports] explains to us in length of interviews that public transport is an eminently priority but at the same time, leaves users in the lurch in the face of major difficulties in public transport and an increase in the Navigo pass. The government must take its responsibilities. In the medium and long term, we need major assemblies on the financing of public transport in France for it to truly become a priority for action. We need to look for tax tools that will make the wealthiest pay more and especially those who use more polluting transport.
Valérie Pécresse also asked local authorities to make an extra effort. What will the city of Paris do?
The city of Paris will take its part, as requested by IDFM. Paris has always assumed its responsibilities in terms of public transport. This is our priority, so from the beginning we announced that we accept this additional contribution. But in return, we want an improvement in the quality of service and transport that is accessible to all. Here we are on 180 euros increase per year [avec le scénario d’un pass Navigo à 90 euros]it is enormous.
At the same time, the quality of service has deteriorated, particularly at the RATP. How to cope?
One of the reasons for the difficulties of the RATP is the opening up to competition. This process deeply weakens the operator and makes the operator lose its attractiveness, making it more difficult to recruit metro and bus drivers. There is a form of social dumping that reduces the social conditions of RATP agents to increase productivity. But it’s a company that delivers a major service and that the whole world envies us, or rather envies us. We’re breaking something that works. The competition is perfectly ideological. So far the service has worked. There are plenty of things to improve, I’m not saying the opposite. But it is not the fact that private companies will tomorrow be able to operate bus lines in Paris in a Kafkaesque system that will change things. On the contrary, I think that today it makes things worse.
The defenders of the opening to competition argue that this could make it possible to lower the costs and therefore the price of the Navigo pass…
I don’t have an example of competitive bidding that has lowered costs. It does not exist. Transdev operates a line in Seine-Saint-Denis where the opening to competition has already begun, and what is happening? Strikes, degradation of service. Because at some point, you have to pay agents and service costs well. We must stop with this chimera of competition which would systematically result in lower prices for the user or the consumer. The only thing that can lower the Navigo pass is a massive investment by the public authorities. It would be good for the budget and good for the climate.