Transport: Against the losses of containment, a refundable advance for IDF Mobilites

This advance would be intended to “fully” compensate for the “ticket office losses” (tickets, Navigo pass) suffered by Ile-de-France Mobilités in 2020, and would “very likely exceed one billion euros”, explains the deputy LREM to the Parisian . “We can act on the principle of an advance of 1 to 1.5 billion euros, to be refined, to be reimbursed to the State without interest from 2023”, continues Mr. Saint-Martin, who will propose this solution in as part of the fall budget discussions. The envelope would then be paid in January 2021.

This measure would respond favorably to the repeated request of the President of the Region, Valérie Pécresse, who estimates the hole created by the Covid-19 pandemic in the region’s public transport budget at 2.6 billion euros. The standoff with the state had led Valérie Pécresse to suspend payments to RATP and SNCF which run trains, subways, trams and buses.

In addition, another subsidy of 600 million euros will be paid “in the coming days” to the organizing authority in order to absorb its tax losses, in accordance with an amendment voted in July, recalled Mr. Saint-Martin. Ile-de-France mobilités collects the mobilities payment, a tax paid by companies. In return for this aid, Mr. Saint-Martin urges Ile-de-France mobilités to “maintain” “essential investments” to “improve daily transport”.

(with AFP)