The 5 tips offered by the Paris Metro to improve the Buenos Aires metro – 03/02/2019

The Paris subway shops seem a train operating room. There are chbadis parts, bodies and spare parts of all kinds, ordered with care and cleanliness. The workers work in pairs. Two here, with a wheel crane; two others over there, working with what looks like big exercises; two others standing there under the raised cars, controlling opposite, bolt by bolt. They check the long stretches of cables as it's veins and arteries, obsessed with surgeons.

The the pace of repairs and adjustment is one of the great secrets of the Paris metro, operated by the state-owned company RATP (autonomous region of Paris transport), which exported the operation and maintenance of urban transport systems in 14 countries on four continents. In addition to wines, fashion, cheese and champagne, France exports transport management. But they are not yet in South America and they plan to enter … Buenos Aires.

For this, they submitted to the city government that will grant the operating license and maintenance of the six subway lines of Buenos Aires (54 km with 86 stations) for 12 years, with the option of three others. The other bidders are Metrovías – the current operator, supported by the German DeutscheBahn – and the French Keolis, presented with Helport, the Eurnekian group, as well as the technical advice of the English TFL (Transport For London). RATP has no local partners, even though Alstom, a train builder working in Argentina since 1993, is introduced to them.

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Although the dimensions of the Buenos Aires metro seem excessively small compared to the Paris metro, famous worldwide for connecting the whole city and its surroundings to an extensive and efficient network more than 200 kilometers of slopes-, RATP officials see similarities. "Both date from the early twentieth century, and in both networks, several different types of car formations are also operated, which is exactly what we usually work," said Gerard Boursin, the One of the executives of the French company. .

A single line of the Paris metro (the RER A) runs every day 1.3 million people, the same amount as in all the subway of Buenos Aires. And Paris has 19 other lines.

But what are the tips with which the French will try to seduce the pbadengers of Buenos Aires, in case of winning the call for bids?

There are five main ones. One is the maintenance rhythm in the workshops, increase in production between 5 and 10 times. In the subway of Buenos Aires, one works a car a month, and in Paris, they revise and repair at the same time a train of six cars. But is it possible?

"Absolutely, we can do it with Argentinian workers, who have a lot of talent and imagination.Whatever technology is used, robots do not think and many workers know more about specific issues than the engineers themselves. same, "says Jacquou Trouillard, who will oversee the work in the Buenos Aires workshops if the RATP proposal wins.

Last night, it snowed in Paris and the afternoon is freezing, but in the enormous hangars of the Metro workshops, everyone works comfortably, at 20 degrees and with high safety indices.

The second round goes hand in hand with the first and is increase the frequency of trains: With more cars available for daily maintenance, there will be more cars to add to the trainings. At this point, they will also integrate technology to the signaling system.

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The third one also concerns the optimization of the train frequency but this time with the help of the movement of public flows. In other words, set the formations exactly according to what is needed at that moment. They say that they will do it with Big Data and with the use of artificial intelligence, by badyzing the data provided by the SUBE map in real time. Technology to know if, at a given moment, there are missing trains on line B and that there are too many trains on E, for example.

The fourth round consists of constant training of car drivers using digital simulators and the full scale. In Paris, each driver receives eight formations per year. In each, in addition to their capacity, their psychophysical state is evaluated. The French RAPT say that this training system – the first driver course lasts 49 days – is essential for safety. "In Bombay (India), 30 people die every day in different types of accidents, but not a person in the subway, none," said Jean-Luc Chapoton, Director of International Trade at RATP.

The fifth point is more visible to the pbadenger. It's a set of measures for improve customer service which includes interactive displays in stations up to a App for cell phones that will also allow you to pay for tickets directly from the app. "There is already an agreement to do this also with a credit card and you can not even pbad the windlbad that with the card," said Diego Da Silva, project director of the company and responsible for the transition in Buenos Aires, just in case they win.

After the scandal of bribe notebooks, is it easy to participate in a call for bids in Argentina?

RATP Executive Director Laurence Batlle highlights two issues. First, they will "work with the 6,000 people currently in the Buenos Aires metro without any type of reduction". And another, to be clear: "The RATP never paid bribe in any country and we will never do. It is our irrevocable policy and its answer is simple and clear: no, "while emphasizing" the process of absolute transparency in the offers of the Government of Buenos Aires ".

The French state group also aspires to participate in future extension works of the metro network and calls for tenders from the Belgrano Norte and Urquiza railways. For that, of course, they will have to beat the current battle against Metrovias and their compatriots in Keolis. The three interested parties hope to know the name of the winner before the October elections.

Special Envoy to Paris.