RATP is moving slowly to reduce air pollution

Accelerate the pace. On Wednesday, June 8, the National Institutes of Health (Anses) urged metro officials to better measure groundwater quality. The air we breathe is loaded with particles that are on average three times larger than the surface. Formed by the WHO, To condemn the statement. Question: Friction with tracks, especially during braking, creates a regular dust scatter in the air after the passage of the paddles. Seven cities with underground networks are targeted: Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Rennes, Rouen and Toulouse. And more specifically Ile-de-France, where RATP is located. With 624 stations, the network is one of the densest in the world, with 12 million passengers a day. But is one of the most polluting. “It’s very old, waste has accumulated,” says Olivier Blond, special envoy for the fight against air pollution in the Ile-de-France.

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– Anses (nsAnses_fr) June 8, 2022

Sophie Mazoué, who is responsible for the group’s sustainable development, confirms that RATP is “highly mobilized” in this regard. To date, no European law regulates particle emissions in the metro. A surprising deficit, in July 2021, A comment from the State Council It urged the government to enact legislation in the matter within 6 months. “We’m still waiting,” Oliver Blonde sighed. Sophie Mazoué insists that RATP is not enough to prevent it from being “on the verge of continuous improvement for years”. In 1997, the team installed sensors to measure air at 3 stations: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Line 1), Chatlet (Line 4) and Auburn Station (RERA). It used both RER A sites Châtelet-les-Halles and Nation at the end of 2021. According to RATP, the project will cost IDF Mobilites 1.2 million. Data is collected and viewed by the general public On a dedicated site.

Installing Ultrafine Particle Sensors

In late May, the Ile-de-France Mobilites encouraged fighting. And verified An action plan Improve air quality. Among them, the agreement signed between RATP and the specialized AirParif Laboratory provides for the measurement of ultrafine particles (PM 0.1) that are highly hazardous to human health. Tony Renucci, president of the Repire Association, explains, “They penetrate our lungs very easily. RATP estimates that installing ultrafine particle sensors will cost around 300 300,000. Olivier Blond says that eventually the collected data will be added to the SNCF and brought to the IDF Mobilités site as one of the “most visible” open data.

“We start from a distance”

According to Tony Renucci, “going in the right direction” is not enough. “We have installed 5 RATP stations with a total of more than 300 sensors. It’s not too much, we’re starting from a distance. ” The PSU explains that it “moved the lines” and we report to IDF Mobilités. Jacques Baudrier, Paris’s deputy mayor (PCF) and executive of Île-de-France Mobilités, has been no less critical: “I have been asking RATP to share its data for 10 years, and it has guided us. She is not the driving force behind public health.” He also voted against the IDF Mobilités action plan, which he considers “intimidating.”

When braking, handle contaminants at source

In the second part of their strategy, IDF Mobilités and RATP go beyond simply collecting data. 57 57 million has been invested to improve the ventilation of trains and stations. Of the 345 RATP fans, 40 will be updated or replaced in 2024. “If you know that a fan can reduce the rate of particles in the air by 30 to 60%, this is an improvement,” Sophie Mazoué welcomes. The team is also testing a solution developed by start-up Bioxegy to increase fan flow rates using a bio-clipping device.

The last part of the strategy seeks to address the problem at the RATP source, especially the braking of trains. First, all new cities and RERs have added to the service “mechanical braking”, which pollutes less than old products. Eventually, the company hopes to install new brake lining and “green friction” on metro trains. According to Wabtec, the US company that developed it, the technology reduces particle emissions by 90%. After 10 months of bench testing, in the summer of 2021 two new Line A train sets were fitted for a one-year full-scale inspection. “We will know in the summer of 2022 whether the solution works,” Sophie Masou underscores. For its part, SNCF tests a passive particle capture device, developed by start-up Tallano in RER C. This will reduce particle emissions by 50%, not 80% as initially announced.

“Test, but for how long?”

90% reduction in particles for one solution, 50% for another … These figures cast doubt: “I want an independent laboratory that can provide us with the performance of these technologies”, Storm Jack Patrier. To further criticize the lack of an accurate timetable provided by RATP: “They say they plan to test one day when the time is up. Today it is necessary to fit all trains. According to him, there is no question of dropping Palestine: “I will continue to press until they give us a timetable”. The same pessimism with Tony Renuci, from the Respiratory Association: “It’s good to experiment, but for how long? What is the next project? At RATP, the tone is quiet: “The more we improve our knowledge, the more we progress,” Sophie Mazoué underlines.