RATP Group

The RATP Group (French: Groupe RATP) is a French state-owned enterprise (EPIC) that operates public transport systems primarily in Paris, France. Headquartered in Paris, it originally operated under the name Régie autonome des transports parisiens (English: Parisian Autonomous Transport Administration). Its logo represents the Seine's meandering path through the Paris Region stylised as the face of a person looking up. The company had described itself as the fourth-largest presence in public transport.
RATP Group was established in 1949 with the express purpose of operating Paris's public transport system. During the twentieth century, it focused solely on the provision of the capital's various forms of transit, from the Paris Métro, Île-de-France tram, and the RATP bus network, as well as part of the regional express rail (RER) network. However, since 2002, RATP Group's operations have no longer been geographically restricted; it has competitively pursued contracts to operate transit systems around the world. It also had a partnership with, and a minority shareholding in, Transdev, which has further involved RATP Group in various global transport operations. During 2002, RATP Dev was created as the Group's dedicated international operations and maintenance subsidiary; it is present in 16 countries across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.
RATP Group's Paris-related activities are still a major part of its business through to the present day; in 2019, it was recorded that, in the Île-de-France region, it carried roughly 3.3 billion passengers per year. In 2019, RATP Group's consolidated revenue was €5.704 billion; it employed 64,000 people at that time. In recent decades, the company has operated on an increasingly competitive basis as a result of legislative changes.
The RATP was created on 1 January 1949 by combining the assets of the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris (CMP), which operated the Paris Métro, and the Société des Transports en Commun de la Région Parisienne (STCRP), which operated the city's bus system.
Prior to this, the CMP had absorbed the Nord-Sud Company in 1930 and the Ligne de Sceaux in 1937, which operated commuter rail to the suburbs. The STCRP had been created on 1 January 1921 by the merger of about half a dozen independent bus and streetcar operators in the Paris area. By the time the STCRP was merged into the RATP, all of its streetcars had been replaced by bus routes.
A major change in French law came on 3 November 2009, when article 5 of the ARAF (French rail regulatory body) law came into effect. This law opens public transport operation to competition. The law was part of a broader push by the European Union to open all passenger transport operation to competition. Under this law, the RATP Group lost the exclusive right to operate all new public transport lines immediately. The company's exclusive operation rights for existing lines would expire over time, with the bus network going out to bid 15 years later in 2024, the tram network (Lines T1, T2 & T3) going out to bid 20 years later in 2029, and the Metro and RER lines out to bid 30 years later in 2039.
With the RATP anticipating this shift to a competitive environment, the company began to reorganize itself.
In the early years of the 21st century, a partnership with Transdev resulted in RATP acquiring a minority shareholding in that group, with its many worldwide transport operations. However, in 2009, the Caisse des dépôts et consignations, the majority owner of the Transdev, started negotiations with Veolia to merge Transdev with Veolia Transport. As part of the resulting agreement, made in May 2010, it was agreed that RATP would take over ownership of some of Transdev's operations in lieu of cash payment for its holdings in Transdev. This gave RATP a considerable number of international operations.
In 2009, RATP entered the United States by purchasing transit contractor McDonald Transit Associates. McDonald operated Fort Worth Transportation Authority (now Trinity Metro) in Texas, Votran in Florida, and Waco Transit System in Texas, among others. On 1 August 2011, the RATP Group purchased Stagecoach Metrolink's contract to operate the Metrolink light rail system in Greater Manchester, England until July 2017. Two years later, in 2013, RATP purchased the nearby long-established coach company, Selwyns Travel, a National Express operator.
The current president and CEO of the RATP, Jean Castex, is in office since 28 November 2022.
Hiba Farès is the Chairman of the Board of RATP Dev since January 2022.
In Paris, RATP operates, under its own name, on behalf of and under contract with Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the Paris region transit authority. RATP's services constitute, in their own right, a multi-mode public transportation infrastructure, but also contribute to a larger multi-mode system extending out into the surrounding Île-de-France communities.
RATP's services in the Greater Paris area include:
Paris bus route 341 was RATP's first line equipped with 100% electric full-size buses (starting June 2016). By early 2021, there were over 150 full battery electric buses in the fleet with a target of 1,500 by 2025.
RATP Dev (Dev being a contraction of Développement, French for development), established in 2002 as a 100% subsidiary of the RATP Group, provides operations and maintenance of passenger transport services outside of the "historical" RATP network in the Greater Paris area although it also operates some specialised services within Paris. RATP Dev is present in France as well as in 15 other countries, namely Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Egypt, Hong Kong, Italy, Morocco, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Wholly and partly owned operations include the following:
In December 2022, RATP Dev launches hydrogen training center in La Roche-sur-Yon.
In June 2024, RATP partnered with Wabtec to equip all its RER A trains with a new brake lining that eliminates 70-90% of the health-damaging fine particles found on platforms. Similar tests are being carried out on some metro lines. The same year, RATP and Île-de-France Mobilités signed an accessibility charter to make it easier for blind and partially-sighted people to travel on Île-de-France's transport network.
RATP Dev's presence in the United Kingdom is mainly concentrated in London with its portfolio of bus services on behalf of Transport for London. Through its three subsidiaries London United, Quality Line (acquired as Epsom Coaches in April 2012) and London Sovereign (acquired in April 2014), RATP Dev manages 1129 vehicles on 96 routes out of 10 garages, and has 3387 employees, as of 2020. Early 2021, RATP Dev announced that it is to close its Quality Line subsidiary and Epsom depot. The closure was effective as of July 2021.
On 16 June 2021, the firm announced it had placed an order for 195 electric buses for its London operations to be delivered jointly by Alexander Dennis and BYD Auto, the by then largest ever full battery electric bus order in the UK.
On 22 September 2021, RATP Dev and SeaLink Travel Group (now Kelsian Group) announced that their respective West London bus operations (including London United, London Sovereign and Tower Transit's Westbourne Park garage) would merge into a new joint venture called RATP Dev Transit London, with RATP Dev holding 87.5% of shares and SeaLink 12.5%. The incorporation of the joint venture was finalised on 11 December 2021. Tower Transit's Lea Interchange garage, located in East London, was not part of the joint venture and remained unaffected until sold off separately to Stagecoach London.
Outside of London, RATP Dev manages, since 2011, the Air Decker, a bus service operated by Bath Bus Company connecting Bristol Airport with Bath.
RATP operates various transit systems in the United States under the name RATP Dev USA:
RATP Dev operates hop-on hop-off tours using double-decker buses under the Tootbus brand in several cities:
Since 2013, RATP Dev, in a consortium with TPG and Pomagalski, manages the Salève cable car, in the French Alps. Ridership of the cable car has increased by 50% since 2013, notably after the introduction of shuttle buses from Annemasse and Saint-Julien-en-Genevois. The contract of the RATP Dev-led consortium has been renewed in 2019 for 12 additional years, until 2031.
RATP Dev established in 2018 a "regional office" in Singapore for Asia-Pacific albeit not having any operational activity in the city-state. In December 2020, RATP Dev and SBS Transit announced a partnership for future rail projects in Singapore, without referencing specific commercial targets. RATP Dev and SBS Transit are expected to bid for operations and maintenance of the future Jurong Region MRT line and the future Cross Island MRT line. In November 2024, RATP Dev and SBS Transit were successful in their tender for the Jurong Region MRT Line.
In September 2020, RATP Dev announces a partnership with Getlink to jointly bid under the "Régionéo" brand name for regional rail services in France which will gradually opened to competitive tendering.
In February 2023, Sepulveda Transit Corridor Partners (STCP), one of the two private sector teams executing the project development agreement with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the future Sepulveda Transit Corridor, announced to have selected RATP Dev as its operations and maintenance partner.
In October 2024, RATP Dev and the East Japan Railway Company announce their association to jointly bid for operations and maintenance of the North–South Commuter Railway (NSCR), in the Philippines.
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