Marseille city hall accuses RTM of “endangering the health of Marseillais”
While Marseille transport has shifted to lighter hours due to a lack of staff, the deputy mayor in charge of mobility denounces a situation which results in a high concentration of people.
The town hall of Marseille invoices the RTM (Régie des transports métropolitains) and the Metropolis for the new public transport timetables. Since Monday, the Marseille network has switched to “green hours”, usually reserved for school holidays, due to a lack of staff due to Covid-19.
From now on, subways, trams and a certain number of bus lines have a lower frequency of passage than usual.
“Greater promiscuity in transport”
The City of Marseille, through the deputy (PS) in charge of mobility Audrey Gatian, denounces the reduction in the transport offer, which it considers dangerous, for users while the spread of Covid-19 in the Bouches-du-Rhône is currently substantial.
“We see that there are a lot of people on the buses, in the subways, in the trams. The green timetables, these holiday timetables, cause greater promiscuity in public transport and endanger the health of Marseillaises. and Marseillais “, protests Audrey Gatian on BFM Marseille.
According to the deputy mayor, the new timetables, which also concern the city of Aix-en-Provence, have lengthened the waiting times for users who wish to take public transport.
“We have a transport offer which is still deteriorating, it was already not exceptional and there, we are on a fairly continuous degradation”, warns the elected Marseille.
Driver absences due to Covid-19
Faced with these criticisms, the Métropole d’Aix-Marseille, in charge of transport management, maintains “that it is an operating decision that does not depend on a particular decision of the Metropolis”. She also affirms that the recent strengthening of teleworking due to the health situation has reduced the number of people in Marseille transport each morning.
She also recalls that the adaptation of schedules is justified by a significant absence of drivers and drivers, affected by Covid-19 or declared as cases of contact.
The deputy mayor Audrey Gatian believes, however, that the RTM could “organize” to fill these absences.
“We are at the 5th wave of Covid-19, I do not know how many waves we will have to wait to anticipate these problems and allow the people of Marseilles and Marseillais to move around properly”, criticizes the elected representative for mobility and city politics.
Currently, the switch to green hours concerned on the metropolitan network the two metro lines M1 and M2, the three tram lines T1, T2 t T3 as well as many bus lines: T1A-T1B-B3A-B3B-6-22 / 22S-38-40- 41-42 / 42T-46 / 46S-48 / 48T-53-54-55-61-72-80-81-83.