The competent commissions of the National Assembly and the Senate have given the green light to the appointment of former Prime Minister Jean Castex as head of the RATP, we learned this Wednesday from a parliamentary source.
The members of the Sustainable Development Commission of the National Assembly approved the candidacy of Jean Castex by 34 votes against 19 and those of the Regional Planning Commission of the Senate by 18 votes against 8, paving the way for his appointment to the position of director general of the Régie in the Council of Ministers.
“My priority of priorities is core business, and core business is meeting user expectations” in Ile-de-France, where the RATP is currently struggling to get its buses and subways running, he said. The first difficulty, of “absolute urgency,” “is that of continuity and quality of service,” she acknowledged. Blame a shortage of drivers due to hiring difficulties and high absenteeism. Three weeks are given to establish a “shared diagnosis” and “find additional tools” to restore the situation, with a “quality of life at work theme”.
Jean Castex aims, in particular, to increase the human presence in contact with travelers and “humanize (the) service as much as possible”. Regarding wages, he intends to anticipate the opening of Mandatory Annual Negotiations (NAO) with the unions as soon as he takes office. Agents have already benefited from a 5.2% average increase in pay this year, he warned on the eve of a strike that promises to be hugely popular.
More generally, the priorities of the next head of the RATP will be punctuality, regularity, cleanliness, security, the fight against fraud, the quality of the information provided to travelers and the modernization of ticketing. The former prime minister’s creed will be “listen, consult, approach,” he added.
Jean Castex intends, in particular, to make “a very precise inventory of what works and what does not work” with Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the regional transport authority chaired by Valérie Pécresse. Among the “difficulties” that await the future general director of the RATP, proposed by Emmanuel Macron, Jean Castex also cited the dizzying electricity bill, which should go from 210 million euros last year to around 265 million this year and reach between 480 and 550 million next year. “It will be necessary to see (…) what solutions can be found with the IDFM and with the State”, he pointed out.
In this regard, Jean Castex specified that he would speak of competition in the government with the Minister for the Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu, since the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life has prohibited him from addressing this particular issue with ministers who were in his government. – which was not the case with Christophe Béchu. As for the important development of the RATP subsidiaries, outside Ile-de-France and in new sectors, in recent years, Jean Castex is less enthusiastic.
The diversification of activities is important, it makes sense, but in no way should it distract us from our primary and fundamental mission”, he remarked. Clearly: the priority now is to make the RATP work in Ile-de-France, and the Régie should ” refocus” its action outside its historical domain, for example focusing on automatic subways, according to him. yes useful for the Nation”.
“I’m not looking to be resettled. (…) When you want to resettle friends, it’s more of a sinecure. I’m not sure it’s like that,” he said, recalling that he is passionate about transportation and that he had been a candidate in 2019 to direct the SNCF. “The challenges are not lacking and that motivates me a lot”. And if he no longer wants to play politics, Jean Castex insisted on the need to invest in public transport.
Source: BFM TV
