With just under a year to go before the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, campaigners are worried would-be spectators using wheelchairs could feel left out of the Games as only a small number of metro stations are accessible without using stairs.
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    With Paris streets often clogged by traffic, travelling underground is often much quicker but only 9% of metro stations can be accessed without walking up and down steps.

    Wheelchair users, however, would need to travel by bus as both metro stations have stairs and no lifts, a test ride carried out by Maille, who was accompanied by a Reuters journalist, showed.

    In Paris, transport operator RATP pledges to increase this number in the French capital by the start of the Games but only to 14%, blaming the grid’s age - the core was built about 100 years ago - for not undertaking a more ambitious push.

    “I hope these Games will make our political leaders realise that … we can’t wait another 30 years for full accessibility but it needs to happen now,” said Maille.

    RATP regional vice president Gregoire de Lasteyrie told Reuters that all Olympic sites would be accessible to everyone, thanks to buses and trams.

    The company also plans to deploy 250 specially refitted buses that can transport more wheelchair users, he added.

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