Today almost 100,000 students have accommodation in station neighbourhoods of the future Grand Paris Express network and over 130 institutions are located in their vicinity. Tomorrow the new accessibility, which will put Noisy-Champs at a 20 minute journey from Créteil, and Villejuif 23 minutes away from Plateau de Saclay, will provoke a currently unimaginable dynamic of proximity.
Although the study highlights the fact that Paris maintains a dominant position in terms of higher education, it illustrates the strategic dimension that the Grand Paris Express offers to the student population by bringing where they live closer to where they study. For example, Nanterre will be 30 minutes away from the Condorcet campus and Vitry-Centre 8 minutes from Arcueil-Cachan instead of the present 38 minutes.
Station neighbourhoods form hubs where the creation of suitable accommodation, alongside specific services (common workspaces, sports facilities) and the presence of e-learning centres providing seating could respond, at least partially, to the needs of students living far away from their place of study.
Through the efficiency it is expected to achieve, the Grand Paris Express will also improve the position of decentralised sites and will notably render the exchange between institutions and laboratories within the same communities (COMUE) more fluid even though their sites may be dispersed.
Apart from this linking process, the study highlights the neighbourhoods where the offer of higher education is inadequate, particularly in the north east quarter of Grand Paris. This sector, which is today very poorly provided for in terms of facilities connected to higher education will be served by lines 15, 16 and 17 and could benefit from investments related to the needs of the airport and large exhibition parks.
Finally the study speaks about how important the new accessibility is for the total success of campus projects being developed: Saclay, Condorcet, Descartes and Villejuif.
The study is available on the Apur site.
Press contact:
Apur : Quentin Treton : e-mail – 00 33 (0)1 83 97 63 59
Société du Grand Paris : Jérémy Huppenoire - e-mail - 00 33 (0)6 34 47 16 18 and Guy-Arnaud Behiri - e-mail - 00 33 (0)6 98 82 79 40
