Marlène Dolveck is director general of SNCF Gares et Connexions. A month before the start of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, the first phase of work at the Gare du Nord has officially been completed. The inauguration took place this morning. Furthermore, the renovation of the Lyon Part-Dieu station has been completed after that of Toulouse Matabiau last year. The development of the SNCF infrastructures was therefore completed in time for the event.
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**Marlene Dolveck: We are ready for the Olympics. It was a great pleasure this morning to inaugurate the Gare du Nord in Paris, with a much more modern operation. Inside, new signage, new escalators. We have also boosted all the services and businesses that are on the station. And above all, what is quite remarkable is the opening to the city with a new bicycle hall, the largest in Île-de-France, more than 1,200 safe bicycle spaces, but also new taxi access.
“We prepared like marathon runners, we can count the preparation time this year, I must say that a month before the Olympic Games we are ready for 100% of the stations.”
Finally, it really is a total reconfiguration of the station. It is the same in Lyon Part-Dieu, which also saw the opening of 600 square meters of additional services today. We also doubled the surface area of the station with a completely new and innovative operation of this Lyon Part-Dieu station.
Are additional trains and extra staff planned at the station to accommodate all these visitors?
Yes of course. We have 10,000 people who will be mobilized in our stations to welcome all visitors, with a new application, the Trade SNCF app, which will allow every railway worker to translate the questions asked by visitors into more than 100 languages . We also have a new application that allows you to have the train departure and arrival panels in your pocket, allowing you to stroll peacefully around the station without being crowded in front of the display panel.
The main lines will be in demand, as there are tests in Marseille, for example. How will you also manage the flow of people traveling during this summer period?
It’s a job. We actually thought about journeys that could be different within the station. And it is a real choreography that has been organized for several months and we trained thoroughly for this choreography, we trained a lot.
Is there any reinforcement planned in terms of security?
Managing security is absolutely essential. We have obviously worked with each of the affected police headquarters who are the leaders of this security in the area. As for the stations, of course we have our railway guards, but also many more private guards. We also have police stations at the stations. On Friday we visited the new police station which will be in the station of Lyon Part-Dieu and it is something new.
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