Ambassador’s Activities

2014

Distributor: French Embassy in the UK - Press and Communications Services 58 Knightsbridge, SW1X 7JT London E-Mail: [email protected] Web: www.ambafrance-uk.org

Speech by HE Sylvie Bermann, French Ambassador to the United Kingdom

at the Transport Conference of the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain

14 October 2014

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Mr Vice-President, Madam President, Monsieur le Sénateur maire de Strasbourg, Monsieur le Préfet, Président de la Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de Paris Ile-deFrance, Company directors, business leaders, Dear friends,

I’m very happy to be opening my first conference organized by the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain. Thank you, Mr Vice-President, for your words of welcome and for taking the initiative or organizing – in partnership with the Embassy – what is now an annual event. Last year, the first conference was organized on the theme of energy, a subject of common interest to our two countries, and it was a great success.

This year, the Chamber of Commerce suggested this second conference should be on “the challenges for the city of tomorrow”. The theme seemed to us to be not only a major challenge but also one shared by both our countries. I want to thank the speakers and panellists who are going to address you today. And I’m very happy that Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin has agreed to come and wind up this conference.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The development of major urban metropolises is a global challenge for large economies and developed countries, but also – and especially – for emerging countries with rapid growth, both demographic and economic. Today, more than 50% of the world’s population lives in cities. In 2025, 40 cities in the world, including our two capitals, will have more than 10

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million inhabitants. By 2050, the transport and energy demands of those great metropolises are set to double, no doubt with an equivalent impact on carbon emissions. Just one example I’m familiar with: the city of Shanghai receives an additional 300,000 inhabitants a year. In the space of 20 years it has developed 11 underground lines, and today it has a network on a par with London’s. So this theme of tomorrow’s urban transport is a demographic, economic, social, industrial and technological challenge, as well as a climate challenge.

The European Union has fully understood this challenge. Since 2000, European institutions have provided €11 billion in funding related to urban transport. And while the EU doesn’t regulate urban transport, it encourages the sharing of best practice. That’s what we’re doing at this conference.

Indeed, it’s to our advantage to compare the urban transport models in both London and Paris. And to export them. Greater London, with 8.5 million inhabitants, and the Paris urban area, with 10.5 million, are of equivalent size, and both transport 11 million travellers every day.

London and Paris are also similar in terms of their very diversified and interconnected transport networks.

Our capitals have two of the world’s oldest and most tightly-knit

underground networks. They are criss-crossed by bus networks and have tram lines and even a few river networks.

The challenges of tomorrow for our two capitals are also comparable: the Paris urban area is increasing by 50,000 inhabitants a year, and Greater London by 100,000 a year. To address this, our capitals are both carrying out major investment programmes.

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London is building Crossrail, its commuter train network and the largest civil engineering project in Europe, and last week Boris Johnson presented Tube 2020, the design of the future underground lines, which are of interest to many companies.

For its part, Paris will be building the new Greater Paris Express metro lines, which will considerably improve transport in the Ile-de-France region. It’s probably the biggest public investment in France: €30 billion between now and 2030 for an additional 200 kilometres of metro lines, 69 stations and connections with the TGV stations and Paris’s airports!

Sir Peter Hendy of TfL and Préfet Etienne Guyot, former Chief Executive of the Société du Grand Paris, will shortly tell you about these projects in greater detail.

But urban transport, ladies and gentlemen, doesn’t concern only London and Paris.

Urban transport concerns the major provincial cities, where the financial stakes are just as high – 25% of local authority budgets in France. Senator Roland Ries, Mayor of Strasbourg, who chairs the French grouping of local authorities responsible for transport, will give you his analysis of France’s provision.

Urban transport is also about lower-carbon mobility. In 1985 France opted for trams, and 28 cities have acquired them, such as Nantes, Strasbourg, Bordeaux and Montpellier. I note that in the UK, major cities like Manchester are opting for this clean mode of transport, which is redesigning cities. Paris and London have also both introduced bicycle hire schemes, with, respectively, the Vélib’ and Boris Johnson’s beloved Barclays Bikes, but now there are also

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electric cars – Autolib’ – and I welcome the fact that Bolloré is gaining a foothold in the London market through this fine project.

Urban transport means modern, state-of-the-art transport that adapts to the digital age. In the excellent special edition on transport published by the Chamber of Commerce, Secretary of State McLoughlin himself says:

“My preferred mode of transport is my smartphone”.

Guillaume Pepy puts it another way: “The SNCF’s main competitor is Google”. And I note with interest TfL’s initiatives: the recent establishment of contactless payment on the Tube, which will soon enable a French person arriving in London to take the underground without stopping at a barrier, as well as the Night Tube, which will run 24 hours a day at weekends from September 2015.

Finally, urban transport is about the success of French and British companies, and tomorrow’s jobs. In the UK, major transport projects like Crossrail, like the HS2 project for a second high-speed line between London and Birmingham, and like the rail franchise system are attracting major transport manufacturers and operators from all over the world. I note with satisfaction that the major French transport groups have all been present for a long time in the UK, where they account for some 15,000 jobs. Our operators are providing their expertise. Keolis is present in the rail franchises and is soon going to be operating the DLR. RATP Développement is operating some of London’s famous red buses. Eurostar is a shining example of the bilateral relationship uniting Paris and London, a subject which Nicolas Petrovic will have the opportunity to come back to this afternoon. I pay tribute to our equipment makers and manufacturers (particularly Alstom and Thales) involved in the major British projects both in and outside London (for example, Nottingham’s tram). For some French operators, the United Kingdom is the number one market outside France. So feedback

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from Franco-British partnerships in this sector will obviously be a subject of interest for this conference.

Ladies and gentlemen,

There are still many other subjects I could talk about this morning, but I’ll stop there for the time being.

My thanks once again to the Chamber of Commerce, British and French

institutional players, manufacturers and transport operators in our two countries, who will be speaking today about all these fascinating topics.

And I wish you a highly successful

conference!./.

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