Consolidated, efficient, and sustainable asset management
Be it RER trains, escalators, signal cabins, or ticket gates, RATP Group has always made the strategic decision to retain most of its infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance operations in-house.
This sustainable asset management approach, which has always been at the core of RATP’s business model, now has to address new challenges that range from climate change adaptation to the reinvention of urban public areas.
Conserving public assets with thorough and agile methods
Retaining most infrastructure and rolling stock maintenance operations in-house guarantees relative independence with regard to suppliers, and helps control costs. This strategy has enabled the Group to develop extensive technical expertise. Another major strength – being an organisation that successfully integrates the engineering, operations and maintenance of existing and legacy assets. This strength upholds the synergies between professional teams that know each other well, and which are culturally accustomed to working together.
Given the size and intensive use of the Île-de-France regional network, RATP Group has made consolidated asset management a global benchmark in industrial expertise. The Group’s teams oversee an exceptionally large portfolio of rolling stock and infrastructure covering all areas of urban transport across the life cycles of assets of widely varying age, and which are subject to extensive use (frequency, passenger load, and other factors).
Managing asset life cycles with a long-term outlook
RATP Group has honed its ability to optimise the lifespan of its assets.
This applies to rolling stock as well: with its overview of train life cycles (metro, tram, and RER), and its particular attention to maintainability over the long term, and obsolescence management, RATP Group has managed to significantly prolong equipment lifespans far beyond vendors’ estimates.
Likewise for buses: thorough control over technical upgrades, combined with long-standing expertise in maintenance and repair, adds several valuable years.
Rémy Foret
Director, Digital Innovation and Sustainable Development - RATP Infrastructures
"We are trialling reuse and recycling with a pragmatic approach.
One of our strategies is to actively develop the practice of reusing and recycling materials and equipment. As an example, we are conducting several trials with track components: processing used ballast for reuse, recovering materials from rails to produce new rails, and recycling concrete from track sleepers into pellets.
The goal is to minimise our carbon footprint, and to consume the least amount of new resources possible when we build or replace assets."
Proactively factoring in climate change challenges
Infrastructure monitoring and maintenance have to adapt to global warming. To prevent distortion or wear and tear from heatwaves, stronger measures have been implemented for the preventive maintenance of rail tracks and rolling stock. Ventilation systems and cooling circuits, for example, are now systematically inspected ahead of heatwave periods.
Furthermore, RATP Group and its subsidiaries are working alongside transport authorities to accelerate upgrades of rolling stock to improve passenger comfort: refrigerated ventilation and air conditioning systems have thus been progressively deployed on metros, RER trains, buses and trams across the network operated on behalf of Île-de-France Mobilités.
Floods are another area of concern for RATP Group. As of the early 2000s, RATP embarked on a large-scale plan to protect its underground networks from flooding when the Seine River or Marne River swells. The flood protection plan, known as PPRI, is regularly tested and improved. Yearly drills are also organised in collaboration with the major urban service operators (SNCF, Enedis, RTE and the City of Paris).
Redeveloping buildings for better city living and passenger experience
Through its subsidiaries RATP Solutions Ville (urban services), RATP Real Estate and RATP Habitat (real estate), RATP Group develops, designs, converts, builds, and manages office building sites, as well as industrial and logistical infrastructure dedicated to urban services - bus depots, rail maintenance centres, bus stations, data centres, and more.
By optimising their sustainability and supporting their energy transition (electrification or conversion of bus depots to biogas), the Group, which is a major stakeholder in mobility and sustainable cities, contributes to improving living conditions, and making cities more resilient to climate change.
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