In the Paris Metro, Commuters Face a Slower, Colder Ride
To manage rising EU energy prices, the French transit body RATP is turning down the thermostat and trying to save power.
An RER metro train in the La Defense business district of Paris.
Photographer: Benjamin Girette/BloombergColder workspaces for employees, slower escalators and reduced train speeds — these are some of the measures being considered by Paris public transit authority RATP in the face of this winter’s energy crisis. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushing France’s fuel prices up sharply, the authority said in a press release this September, its energy costs this year are likely to be a third higher than in 2021 — an extra 70 million euros ($67.5 million).
Managing this surge will not be easy. Service reductions are unfeasible — and, from an energy-savings perspective, counterproductive — in a city that increasingly depends on transit; a shortage of train drivers and slowdowns caused by ailing infrastructure are already causing friction in the Paris region. Fares, meanwhile, are set to rise in 2023 after a five-year-freeze. The exact size of the increase has not yet specified, but it’s unlikely to cover the shortfall. So, like homeowners and businesses across Europe, the RATP is doing what it can to economize.