The challenges associated with daily travel are numerous: environmental impact, lack of accessibility for all, regional inequalities.
To mark World Mobility and Accessibility Day, we spoke to Cécile GouesseAssociate and Jérôme CointotAssociate Director Eurogroup Consulting in charge of mobility.
Sustainable mobility has become an imperative in the quest for a more environmentally-friendly and inclusive future. Cécile and Jérôme take a look at the main challenges in France, while proposing concrete solutions. From competition between operators to improved accessibility for all, not forgetting the need for new funding, the future of mobility looks promising but demanding.
What is the sustainable mobility situation in France in 2025?
There are several new contextual factors. Firstly, the introduction of competition for buses in the Île-de-France region, and the fact that this is now affecting Paris and the inner suburbs, and therefore the historical perimeter of the RATP, and also the railways, with the 1st lines of the historical perimeter of SNCF Transilien. Outside the Paris region, the introduction of competition on TER trains is taking shape in all regions of France, with progressive but definite timetables.
Secondly, the SERM (Services Express Régionaux Métropolitains - Metropolitan Regional Express Services) project is gaining momentum, as President Emmanuel Macron has called for a metropolitan RER. A number of metropolises and designated territories have been identified. The main objective is to offer an alternative to the car for easy access to the heart of the metropolis, with a public transport offer at regular intervals. The city of Strasbourg has been a pioneer in this field, revising and increasing the frequency of its TER trains; but there are other avenues to explore, such as express buses and coaches, which are quicker to implement and less expensive (because they don't require infrastructure).
There is also the issue of lack of funding, hence the launch on May 5 of Ambitions France Transport, a new agreement dedicated to the financing of transport infrastructure, particularly rail and road. It's a rather brutal return to reality after the enchanted interlude that the transport sector experienced during the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Today, there's an overall movement, with new operators entering the market, whether in the urban or intercity sector (Italian bus operator ATM has just won a 1st lot in the Île-de-France region, or Kevin Speed, which has positioned itself in the high-speed sector for high-frequency daily transport), and new operators who will be arriving in the next few years. This is the case in the world of high-speed rail, where there are no longer just TGV Inoui and Ouigo, but also Trenitalia, Renfe and new players such as Proxima.
Gares & ConnexionsAs a result, the operator of France's 3,000 stations will find itself faced with a growing number of rail companies. The challenge is to integrate all these players in a transparent and non-discriminatory way, in order to offer a common experience to these new rail operators, and thus to the customers who pass through the station.
How can we improve the customer experience in a multi-operator context?
When we talk about improving the customer experience, in concrete terms we mean: how can we ensure that the customer journey is as smooth as possible? Typically, getting from point A to point B involves, in particular :
- route finding,
- distribution (buying a ticket, at the counter or digitally),
- passenger information, when I arrive at the station to catch my train or bus (timetable, number, route).
There is therefore a real need to standardize the customer experience and ensure that it is as structured as possible.
This is a major challenge for AOMs and multimodal hub managers, who will have to deal with several operators within the same perimeter as competition develops. To guarantee this fluidity, work needs to be carried out to ensure that all customers perceive that they are on a unified network and no longer with this or that operator. This is the aim of all harmonization projects: to have a defined customer experience, a homogeneous pathway, shared relational signatures throughout the same network, regardless of the operator in charge!
Nearly a year after the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, what is your assessment of progress and obstacles to public transport accessibility?
The notion of accessibility covers many different realities. We spontaneously think of people with reduced mobility, but there are also people with visual or cognitive impairments.
Today, there is a real need to upgrade accessibility and make the optimization of physical accessibility a priority. For example, the Île-de-France region is planning to make the historic Paris metro system finally accessible to all passengers.
For the Grand Paris Express, the new infrastructure has been conceived by accessible design. In the case of the Paris metro, some of which is over a hundred years old, this means transforming access and pathways within stations (escalators, elevators, dedicated services). Obviously, this colossal project requires considerable funding. Discussions are underway with Paris City Hall, local authorities, the Region and possibly the French government.
For the visually or hearing impaired in particular, a number of start-ups are helping with indoor guidance in stations or providing other facilities.
During the Olympic and Paralympic Games, there was a great deal of human presence in and around stations, providing reassurance and support for passengers requiring assistance. This massive presence was welcomed, but it came at a considerable cost. We need to think about an innovative model for financing this presence (linked with the station's retail component, with the local authority's tourism component, etc.).
As you can see, we know how to make transport attractive and accessible when we put the means to it, but the question today is to find the right economic equation.
"New indicators should be devised to define the benefits of investments to make mobility more sustainable".
Investing in sustainable mobility is not just a question of cost. Today's thinking cannot be done without taking into account the many positive externalities of mobility projects and their benefits for users, such as better access to employment (when we know that almost one French person in three refuses a job because of lack of transport), health, socialization...
Wouldn't it be worth the effort?
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