The RER A is equipped with a Single Command Centre
Operational since 2 March, this Centre, driven by Île-de-France Mobilités, will bring RATP and SNCF, co-operators of the RER A, closer together with a view to improving the operation of the line and passenger information.
In concrete terms, this CCU will make it possible tocentralise the management of the transport plan, train movements and passenger information, which until now has been carried out in separate locations by SNCF (from Saint-Lazare) and RATP (from Vincennes), and according to their respective areas of operation. Operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it will improve the coordination and reaction times of the 2 operators in the event of an incident, to the benefit of a reliable offer and more qualitative information for passengers.All these objectives will contribute toa better punctuality of the RER A, set at 90% in 2018, after an increase of almost 4 points in one year (since 2017). This improvement in operations and passenger information should benefit in particular the Poissy and Cergy branches of the RER A as well as the Cergy branch of line L, which use the same infrastructure.
Improving passenger information and the operation of the RER A and line L on its Paris Saint Lazare – Cergy branch
To achieve this, 4 SNCF Mobilités and SNCF Réseau agents in charge of traffic, operations and part of the passenger information have joined the 16 RATP agents already present in Vincennes since Saturday 2 March. This system will be completed after the summer, when all the signalling elements of the Cergy branch will have been connected to the Vincennes command centre. This last stage, scheduled for the end of August 2019, will complete the CCU chain of command and complete the process of unifying the line. The integration of a remotely controlled control of the Cergy facilities more than 40km from Vincennes is an unprecedented technical novelty in Île-de-France, allowing the RER A to have an even more integrated CCU than the one that already exists on line B at Denfert-Rochereau since 2015.
A modernised line
Major changes have already been implemented as part of the modernisation of the RER A:
- 140 new 2-deck trains have been deployed;
- The renovation of the 43 MI2N will be carried out in 2019 to improve passenger comfort
- The renewal of the tracks continues (30 km of tracks are renewed each year)
- The autopilot system, currently in effect between Nanterre-Préfecture, Val-de-Fontenay and Fontenay-sous-Bois, will be extended to Noisy Champs
- Additional canine detection brigades have been deployed to speed up the management of suspicious packages
The key figures of the RER A
• Up to 1.3 million trips every day
• 5 branches served (Cergy-le-Haut, Poissy, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Boissy – Saint-Léger and Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy.
• 7 departments and 41 municipalities crossed
• 46 stations
• More than 108 km of track
• 635 train departures every day
• 2,500 people work on the RER A (drivers, regulators, station agents, etc.)
• New offer implemented on the RER A and line L / Cergy Branch since the 2018 annual service:
– 90% punctuality in 2018, i.e. 3.7 points more than in 2017;
– 80% in the Cergy branch, i.e. 9.3 points more than in 2017.
More information on the RER A: