Vélib ': 800 stations and a service "that works" at the end of August

Not necessarily many more resorts, but service and bikes that really "walk". Adding the gradual return of electric bicycles in the coming days, Smovengo promised Wednesday 800 Vélib 'stations operational late August before a new rise in the fall.

"Our goal is, August 31, to have 800 stations in commercial service and 10.000 bicycles making 30.000 daily races ", affirmed Arnaud Marion, on behalf of the consortium to the maneuvering of the deployment, very late, of the free-sharing bicycle device in Paris and its suburbs. 19659002] This specialist of the companies in crisis, new executive president since June 26 of the grouping – Smoove, Indigo, Mobivia and Moventia – presented to the elected officials, and for the first time under his own responsibility, the third stage of a plan

"Today, we focus on operation, not deployment," Marion said to the press.

Thus 1,055 stations are already ready, he says, but the emphasis is placed on the 800 stations, almost all already electrified, which will welcome the bikes without the innumerable bugs provoked by old systems on battery.

– "A service that works" –

Electric bikes, "heart of the project" the new Vélib ', will be reintroduced gradually from July 16, with a target of 3,000 August 31, and the number of regulation and maintenance tripled by the end of September to 313 people.

L Another major innovation of the Vélib'2, that of being able to park a bike in a full station, will wait a little longer and will be revived with the rise in power, from October, of the deployment of the 1,400 promised stations.

" Do not run several hares at a time, "Marion told AFP," we make a point not to disappoint. "

Smovengo was summoned in the spring by Anne Hidalgo to present a plan crisis to restore this service so dear to Parisians and tourists. The pressure increased again recently at the end of June, the mayor of Paris gave "to September" to the operator.

"We take very seriously the statements of the Mayor of Paris" and the President of the Vélib 'Autolib' Mixed Syndicate Catherine Baratti-Elbaz, said Marion. "We take very seriously the need to offer users a service that works, and to be able to meet our commitments," he insisted.

Will these new goals be met after so many other announcements previously and not always filled? "I am modest, we are reasonably confident, it is a serious road map, modeled and calculated," he says.

M. Marion does not see in free fleet bicycles, currently deployed in the capital, a new model that would be preferred. "The customer segment is not the same and more and more people are cycling, that can only go," he says, before stressing that the "Vélib stations" are not cluttering. public road. "

The Paris and Metropolitan elected representatives meeting at the Autolib 'Velib' Métropole Trade Union Committee also voted to extend the reimbursement of subscriptions for the month of June, a measure already adopted from January to May, which will be presumably renewed for July and August

The initial objective of deployment of Smovengo, which took over from JCDecaux, was 700 stations on 1 January and 1400 at the end of March in Paris and in the 60 municipalities of the metropolis .