Outstanding
Opportunities for Transit. . . If, and Only If. . .
Jean-Paul Bailly, president and
director general of RATP for the past three years, was elected president of UITP, the
International Union of Public Transport, earlier this year. Bailly heads what is arguably
the largest multi-modal transit organization in the world, employing a staff of 38,000,
responsible for some 2 billion passenger journeys a year. A graduate of France's
prestigious Ecole Polytechnique and of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he has
moved up to his current leadership position through the ranks of RATP, which he joined in
1970, after management and corporate planning jobs. He had a prominent role in the
negotiations that led to the settling of the 1995 strike and in developing a successful
plan to combat fare evasion. Besides his time at MIT, Bailly's international experience
includes a stint with SOFRETU, the RATP-run consulting firm working on the Mexico City
Metro.
Bailly will address the
opening General Session of APTA's Annual Meeting on Monday, Sept. 22, at 9:45 a.m.
By Jean-Paul Bailly
President and Director
General Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP)
(Paris Transit
Authority)
On the eve of the twenty-first
century, urban transport holds an exceptionally advantageous position. Across the globe,
metropolitan areas and their populations are steadily growing. In the year 2010, our
planet will house 50 cities with over 5 million inhabitants, and 500 other cities with a
population of over 1 million each. These 550 cities will be home to nearly 2 billion
people, while another 2 billion will also be city dwellers.
It stands to reason that city
traveling needs will rise, thus providing an outstanding opportunity for growth of mass
transit systems, if-and only if-they are able to offer options that are both attractive to
users and satisfying to society as a whole to meet the existing needs. Otherwise, the
impending risk is that other solutions will be elected, which means the private cars in
the developed nations. This choice will be made despite its harmful consequences on the
environment (congested roads, pollution, a disfigured urban landscape, etc.).
It seems to me that the
major responsibility of the organizations representing mass transit operators, such as
APTA or the International Union of Public Transport that recently elected me president, is
to make sure that public transport fully exploits its development opportunity.
To successfully reach its
development goals, public transport must rise to meet three main challenges in the
upcoming years.
The first challenge involves the
ongoing harmonization of the transit networks and the appropriate means of
transportation.
One, travel routes have changed.
Let's take the example of Paris. In the suburbs, businesses, trades, and recreational
activities have grown. This means that fully equipped, lively facility centers are
available to suburbanites who, therefore, have fewer reasons for taking trips to the heart
of the city. As a result, there is a growing need for traveling within the outskirts that
has spurred our networks to expand their web to better serve and interconnect the suburbs.
Two, the utmost must be done to
provide the most suitable means of transportation to meet demand. By this I refer to the
most suitable means in terms of cost to the community.
Economic studies have shown that
the most efficient means are:
- for the most highly populated
city zones with the highest concentration of jobs-the subway;
- for average-sized zones-the
tramways or related modes;
- for the less populated zones-buses (This does
not preclude other options, such as minibus shuttles according to demand, or electric car
fleets that can also meet the requirements of special situations); and
- the most suitable means in
terms of technical characteristics.
Besides comfort-enhancing
innovations (such as passageways between subway cars, air conditioning, or low floor
buses), the range of vehicles is steadily being diversified and improved: the fully
automatic subway that can adjust to changing ridership demand in real-time; and dual-mode,
track, and road tramways on rubber tires. All these innovative solutions are promising.
In any case, the RATP that I have
headed for several years believes this to be true: the RATP's fourteenth subway line,
scheduled to become operational next year, will be entirely automatic. Also, the RATP will
soon be testing several new kinds of tramways in real operating conditions.
Major cities will be setting up
several different means of transportation at the same time. For this reason, network
transit hubs will require special care: they will have to be designed to ensure that rider
transit through these areas is simple, friendly, fast, and safe.
All this supposes that there
actually is a transport policy and that the public authorities assume full responsibility
for such a policy.
The second challenge involves environmental
conservation. This concern goes beyond national borders and is an increasingly
sensitive public issue. Mass transit provides an answer to this concern. Subways and
tramways do not generate any air pollution, while buses pollute much less than automobiles
do. This, however, does not free the mass transit networks from the obligation of lowering
the pollutant emissions from buses. As of now, a diesel fuel with a low sulfur content is
available. Tomorrow other energy sources, such as compressed natural gas, could pass the
grade.
However, lowering the air
pollution generated by road vehicles is hardly the be-all and end-all of environmental
awareness. Preserving the environment also means tackling subway-generated noise and
vibrations that cause discomfort to riders as well as to residents in areas neighboring
subway lines. Field engineers can now efficiently counter these complex phenomena, by
either altering the tracks or redesigning the rolling stock.
The third challenge involves greater safety.
In many metropolitan areas, antisocial behavior is on the rise and is turning into
malicious intent for a number of reasons, such as poorly controlled urban growth, rising
unemployment, the spread of drugs, and so on. Malicious intent does not spare the mass
transit systems where it can be seen in the rise of fare evasion, vandalism, and assault.
In this area-more so than in any
other-there is no ready-made answer. Each transit network has to devise the solutions that
are appropriate, both to the specific situation and to the culture-an endeavor that
requires coordinated action and several approaches. Of course, surveillance equipment is
an option that should be fully exploited: video cameras connected to control centers,
remote alarms, vehicle radio-positioning systems, and so on. Specialized security and
strike personnel working in coordination with the police is another alternative. Measures
affecting operations can also be taken: installing a booth that physically isolates the
driver from the passengers and increasing the number of people on staff in some subway
stations and on the bus lines serving problem areas. Upstream, preventive operations can
be carried out, such as public interest information campaigns addressed to young people,
or outreach campaigns to the disadvantaged.
Meeting tomorrow's challenges
does not merely involve the mass transit company's perfect control of transportation
technologies. Mass transit companies will increasingly have to assert themselves as major
movers and doers in the city's structuring and operations. They will have to earn
passengers' recognition that they are experienced service professionals, putting
the customer first, providing exemplary courtesy, convenience, information, and
ticket sales services.
Let me now turn to my new job:
As the International Union of
Public Transport's recently elected president, and in compliance with the guidelines
adopted by our Steering Committee, my aim is to:
- open up the UITP (that because
of its origins is still very European) to new members from those continents with little
representation in our ranks-America, Asia, and Africa, and the tightening of our ties with
major organizations pursuing similar goals, such as APTA, CUTA, and ALAMYS;
- reinforce the drive toward
exchanging serviceable practices between UITP members by exploiting such new information
technologies as the Internet; and
- reinforce the UITP's presence,
good reputation, and influence with major international institutions and political
decision-makers to further the recognition of the public assets represented by public
transport.
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