Will spectators and athletes at the Paris Olympic Games in the summer of 2024 be able to travel to the events by river shuttle? This is the ambition of several companies which plan to launch lines linking Paris and its suburbs by the Seine. As for the public authorities, we hope to take advantage of the excitement of the Olympic Games to support innovative projects for autonomous boats.
Exchanging the noise of the RER for that of the lapping of water… A dream that could come true for Meryem, daily user of the capital’s suburban trains. At the foot of the Alexandre III bridge, in the heart of Paris, between the Esplanade des Invalides where the archery events will take place and the Grand Palais where the fencing and taekwondo events will take place, Dany Carvalho, CEO of the RiverCat cooperative is counting on the 16 million tourists expected throughout the summer and hopes to see its boats dock in the spring of 2024.
A line will cross the capital following the course of the Seine from east to west. “ The Olympic Games will be a real springboard for filling boats. We saw it in London during the 2012 Olympic Games, the river shuttles there jumped 45% in attendance and managed to have a daily clientele he says.
In addition to tourists, Dany Carvalho also hopes to change the habits of return trips to the metro, to work, to sleep by accepting the boarding of bicycles, but also with an efficient service despite the speed limit of 12 km/h on the Seine. . ” This is more than enough if you choose the stopovers well. The goal is not to make stopovers every 500 meters, but to have key points, which brings a journey time to approximately one hour and ten “, he says.
Innovative projects
Other lines, shorter, should see the light of day. Waterways of France, the public establishment responsible for managing river transport in France, also intends to take advantage of the excitement around the Olympics. A call for projects was launched last summer to set up innovative projects. “ We have named three winners. A winner who is in Bordeaux, another winner in Essonne and the third winner who will operate in the Olympic village “, he explains.
In Saint-Denis, north of Paris, an autonomous and electric shuttle should connect different points of the Olympic village and its 17,000 occupants. Only about ten such projects exist in Europe, another is being developed for Rivercat in the south of Paris. A shuttle, also autonomous and electric, crossed the Seine to reach an RER station. An autonomous shuttle, but not without a captain. ” All boats will have a full crew who will be there in the event of a system failure, at any time they can regain control “, he adds.
Businesses and public authorities hope to launch its river links next spring to run the organization before the Games which will begin in July 2024. A lot of tests and work are still necessary, but the objective is clear: to develop innovative technologies, to maintain these lines after the Olympics and inspire other projects across France.