History
The RATP was created on March 21, 1948, by combining the assets of the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris (CMP), which operated the Paris Métro, and the Société des transports en commun de la région parisienne (STCRP), which operated the city's bus system.
Earlier, the CMP had absorbed the Société du Chemin de Fer Électrique Nord-Sud de Paris in 1930 and the Ligne de Sceaux in 1937, which extended commuter rail to the suburbs. The STCRP had been created on January 1, 1921 by the merger of about half a dozen independent bus and streetcar operators in the Paris area. By the time the STCRP was merged into the RATP, all of its streetcars had been replaced by bus routes.
In the early years of the 21st century, a partnership with the Transdev group resulted in RATP acquiring a minority shareholding in that group, with its many worldwide transport operations. However in 2009, the Caisse des dépôts et consignations, the majority owner of the Transdev group, started negotiations with Veolia Environnement to merge Transdev with Veolia Transport. As part of the resulting agreement, made in May 2010, it was agreed that the RATP Group would take over ownership of some of Transdev's operations in lieu of cash payment for its holdings in Transdev. This had a considerable impact on RATP's international profile.
On August 1, 2011, the RATP Group purchased Stagecoach Metrolink Ltd, the operators of the Metrolink light rail system in the English city of Manchester. This purchase includes a contract to operate the expanding Metrolink system that runs to July 2017.
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