Paris Metro Drivers Refuse to Stop at Certain Stations Citing Passenger Safety

A picture taken on March 25, 2010 in Paris shows a train running at the 'Abbesses&#03
JACQUES DEMARTHON/AFP/Getty Images

Drivers on the Paris metro are refusing to stop at certain stations due to the high level of crime and drug use claiming that the areas may not be safe for their passengers.

Drivers working for the Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP), Paris’s publicly-owned transport company, say that several stations to the north of Paris have become rife with drug use and criminality and present a danger to passengers, French broadcaster BFMTV reports.

According to the RATP union UNSA, there are drug addicts and dealers seen daily on lines 4 and 12 at stations like Marcadet Poissonnier and Porte de la Chapelle with the later station also being a well-known place for migrants to camp out.

The union also says that the safety of the RATP employees is impacted in troubled areas as the number of violent incidents toward the employees has increased dramatically in recent months.

The RATP has also commented on the conditions saying that they are working with local police to try and clean up some of the more troubled stations, but UNSA and the Federation of Transport and Public Service Users, an advocacy group for transit users, say the measures are not enough.

Last week, both organisations sent letters to Interior Minister Gerald Collomb, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, and president of the Ile-de-France regional council Valérie Pécresse requesting “urgent and serious measures be rapidly implemented”.

The move comes only months after French courier service Chronopost announced that they would not be delivering packages in certain Parisian neighbourhoods due to danger to their staff.

While the migrant-populated suburbs of northern Paris have long been considered no-go zones, the violence and crime of the suburbs have started to spread into the northern part of central Paris in recent years.

In his recent book, No Go Zones: How Sharia Law Is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You, Breitbart London editor in chief Raheem Kassam noted last February that bus drivers were avoiding certain stops in the suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois after the area was plagued by riots.

Kassam attempted to visit the area of the rioting, which started after a man named Theo claimed that police had brutally inserted a baton into his rectum, but was told by the bus driver that the bus would not be stopping in the area.

Women in the north of the city have described being constantly harassed by men who often refuse to allow them into certain cafes.

Last year a “no-go zone” app was released for mobile phones which allowed users to look at sections of Paris and report crimes so that other users can avoid areas with a high number of reports.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com 

 

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