Who hasn't dreamed ofgoing to work by boat, rather than by train or metro? It's a refreshing change of pace that lets you relax before starting your day, while admiring the scenery. Thanks to river shuttles on the Seine, this could become a reality as early as next year, on the occasion of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Originally used to travel between Olympic venues and the various events, this type of boat could well be tending towards democratization in the years to come.
Several companies are planning to launch lines linking Paris and its suburbs via the Seine by 2024, and the public authorities are keen to support innovative autonomous boat projects on this occasion. In London in 2012, river shuttles were particularly popular, with 45% more passengers and a daily clientele, according to Dany Carvalho, CEO of the RiverCat cooperative. Like others, he wants to take advantage of the competition to promote the trend.
To make it sustainable, bikes would be accepted on board, and stopovers well chosen, tocross Paris from east to west in just over an hour. Parisians should start to see these little shuttles in service as early as next spring, to test their efficiency before the big rush of the Olympic Games. Other lines are planned, notably in Saint-Denis, with an autonomous electric shuttle in the Olympic Village.
