Paris is hosting Pope Léon XIV for the first time since 2008, and the scale of the two-day visit is reverberating across the capital’s public-transport system. RATP and Île-de-France Mobilités have issued an unprecedented list of station closures, line interruptions and bus diversions that began at 09:00 on Friday, 25 September and will run through the evening of Saturday, 26 September. Travellers arriving at the city’s main airports or rail hubs are being urged to allow extra time and to consult live updates before setting out. Flagship hubs such as Charles-de-Gaulle–Étoile, Concorde and Franklin-D. Roosevelt on Metro Line 1—as well as key RER B and C stops serving both the city centre and the Stade de France—will remain closed for most of Saturday while crowd-management barriers and police checkpoints are in place. Trains will run “direct” through the affected stations without stopping. Bus corridors around the Champs-Élysées, Place de la Concorde and Saint-Denis are also subject to rolling closures, with traffic diverted to outer boulevards. Although additional trainsets have been scheduled to handle the tens of thousands of ticket-holders for the youth vigil at the Stade de France, capacity constraints mean that boarding control will start earlier than usual and the last departures on several Metro and RER lines have been pushed forward by 30–45 minutes. Ride-share pick-up zones and taxi ranks inside the security perimeter have been suspended, forcing travellers to walk to designated meeting points outside the cordon. For companies running tight travel itineraries, the main operational risk is missed connections to Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Orly airports: the usual 35-minute RER B journey from Gare du Nord to CDG could take over an hour because passengers must back-track via lines that stay outside the closed stations. Employers are being advised to reschedule airport transfers and cover additional hotel nights where necessary. The transport authorities recommend downloading the Bonjour RATP app or using the real-time PRIM API feed to receive push alerts in English and French. International mobility managers should also warn employees that large pieces of luggage may be refused at random security filters, and that police identity checks have been stepped up on the approaches to all closed stations.
Source: Bonjour RATP
