SNCF says it was not alerted when the large flow of supporters from the RER D, which it operates, caused congestion at the gates of the Stade de France before the Champions League final on May 28.
Chaos at the Stade de France: shame beyond borders
“We have had no alert on the theme “there are problems, we are no longer absorbing, so hold the RER D””, explained Sylvie Charles, director of Transilien (the branch of the SNCF in charge of trains in the Paris suburbs), during a hearing before the Senate devoted to the fiasco of crowd management near the stadium, this Tuesday, June 14. However, its services transmitted every half hour to the organizers the number of supporters counted at the exit of the two RER stations serving the stadium, on lines B and D, she noted.
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43,000 passengers on two RER lines
The SNCF counted 37,000 people, “more than three times what we usually have” on the RER D, and 6,200, “a third of what we usually have”on the RER B. The traffic of the RER B having been affected by a strike by RATP agents, many supporters reported on line D. And the filtering devices on arrival at the stadium were overwhelmed.
Incidents at the Stade de France: the course of this evening of chaos
In this regard, RATP deputy general manager Philippe Martin noted that a meeting with authorities and organizers on May 24 “had clearly specified the transport plan (and) clearly indicated that we were going to transfer part of the flows from line B to line D”.
“There was an AFP dispatch on May 26 which clearly indicates that the RATP invites travelers to use line D as a priority”he added, noting that a new ” point position “ had been made with the French Football Federation on May 27, the day before the match.
The lack of information
Philippe Martin also said to himself “a little surprised at the statements of the French Football Federation”. Its director of institutional affairs, Erwan Le Prévost, had indeed denounced the lack of information from the RATP, during a previous hearing in the Senate, on June 9.
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Fake tickets, arrests, forced filtering… Scenes of chaos during the Champions League final in Paris
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“If we had had real-time information on the diversion of flows from RER B to RER D, we could have redesigned our system at the start of the afternoon. The prefecture did not have the information either.he said.
The representatives of the RATP and the SNCF underlined that their competence stopped at the gates of their stations, and that there had been no major incident in their area despite the high attendance. Sylvie Charles, however, reported a fight in Saint-Denis and the beginning of a stampede in La Plaine-Saint-Denis, as well as the presence of pickpockets.
