Paris’s metro system is the worst capital city in Western Europe for wheelchair access, according to analysis by i.
It comes as millions are expected to travel to the French capital to watch the 2024 Paralympics.
Valérie Pécresse, president of the Paris region and head of the city’s transport network, said on Monday that the capital’s historic metro system “remains [a] weak spot” with regards to Paris’s accessibility.
Leading French disability charity APF France Handicap said it was a “big black spot” on the city’s Paralympic legacy.
Less than 10 per cent of Paris’s metro system currently is wheelchair accessible. First opening in 1900, the metro now has 320 stations, of which only 29 are accessible to wheelchair users.
This compares to 34 per cent of London’s Underground which is wheelchair accessible. The UK’s capital, however, still ranks as the joint-second-worst underground system in i’s analysis.
Cities in Western Europe with the worst wheelchair access*
- Paris: 9 per cent
- London: 34 per cent
- Brussels: 34 per cent
- Berlin: 44 per cent
- Madrid: 60 per cent
- Lisbon: 77 per cent
- Rome: 93 per cent
- Oslo: 99 per cent
- Vienna: up to 100 per cent
- Amsterdam: up to 100 per cent
- Stockholm: up to 100 per cent
- Helsinki: up to 100 per cent
*All metro stations compared to stations with wheelchair access
A number of capitals in Western Europe have metro lines where all stations are wheelchair accessible, according to their respective government websites. They include Amsterdam, Vienna and Stockholm.
The revelation follows former wheelchair racer and 11-time Paralympic champion, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, opening up about her struggles in travelling from London to Paris for the Paralympics.
She said she was forced to drag herself off a London North Eastern Railway (LNER) train service on Monday because no staff were there to help.
The 55-year-old was travelling from Leeds to London – en route to the French capital – and posted a series of messages about her experience on social media.
Ahead of the Paralympics opening ceremony on Wednesday night, Ms Grey-Thompson said: “You should, as a disabled person, be able to get on and off a train and go about your daily living but the reality is far more difficult than that.”
ParalympicsGB chef de mission Penny Briscoe branded the cross-bench peer’s journey as an “absolute disgrace”.
“It’s the lived experience of disabled people, though, on a daily basis – it just doesn’t get reported,” Ms Briscoe said. “You should, as a disabled person, be able to get on and off a train and go about your daily living but the reality is far more difficult than that.”
Baroness Grey-Thompson later received an apology from LNER’s managing director, David Horne.
Inner-city transport has a history of improving after hosting the Olympics and Paralympic Games.
After the 2012 Olympics in London, the then-mayor Boris Johnson announced a £75m fund to install lifts at “around a dozen” Underground stations over 10 years. Since the 1992 games in Barcelona, all stations in the city’s metro network have been constructed or renovated to guarantee accessibility.
Ms Pécresse has now pledged to deliver “a metro for all” in Paris after the Paralympics uncovered the network’s shortfalls for those with disabilities. She has vowed to spend up to €20bn (£17bn) over two decades.
Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee, said the announcement is “a clear example” of how the Paralympic Games “triggers significant changes that will benefit millions of people for generations to come”.
