1.90 euros for a single ticket from July. It’s the buzzword of the summer, the increase in tram fares. By launching lines and replacing loaner bikes, the Bordeaux metropolis and Kéolis are justifying this necessary price increase. Users will have to put their hands in their wallets, while they still suffer from the poor maintenance of the structures.
How can we postpone the costs incurred all this year with the launch of new bus, tram and boat lines along the Garonne, while replacing loaner bikes, in the midst of inflation? Answer: make users pay. This new increase of 3.6% comes one year after a similar increase.
An increase that affects everyone, but especially occasional users. This decision taken by the Metropolitan Council should be voted on next June and applied from July.
“With inflation and the implementation of new services, we had to pass on these costs.” Christine François, transport assistant for the city of Bordeaux, takes a small inventory at Prévert of the latest major advances made in connection with TBM:
“The muscle bike is integrated into the annual subscription whereas before, it was in addition, the express bus which arrives, the Simone Weil bridge which is also arriving with a new bus line, the free service that we put in place in March for PRMs with disabilities of more than 50%; in the fall, we are going to have a new line of river boats, all of which means we need additional revenue.”
For the user representative, Christian Broucaret, President of the National Federation of Transport Users of Nouvelle Aquitaine, this increase is justified. “We remained in the last term where there was no increase.”
We realize that inflation being what it is, it was essential to increase prices.
Christian Broucaret,president of the FNOT
With two price increases two years in a row, public transport users in Bordeaux Métropole are seeing the price of their transport ticket increase.
The single pass goes from 1.80 euros to 1.90 euros, while the annual youth subscription only increases by 40 euro cents per month.
The two-trip price will also increase by 10 cents, to 3.30 euros. The ten-trip booklet will increase to 15 euros instead of 14.50 currently.
But it is above all “tourists” or “occasional passengers” who will have to blame the implementation of this price increase: the 24-hour Pass will go from 5 euros to 6.60 euros; that of seven days from 14.20 euros to 17 euros.
We decided to pass this increase on to single and occasional tickets, because when we compare it with other major cities, we were cheaper.
Beatrice of FrançoisTransport assistant at Bordeaux Métropole
These occasional passengers who “represent 2/3 of revenue”, according to the elected official. The user representative is delighted with this targeted increase: “The increase is essentially focused on 1-trip, 2-trip and 10-trip subscriptions. We campaigned so that subscriptions only increase by the rate of inflation.”
In Bordeaux, there is a specificity put in place by the metropolis and which is underlined not only by the deputy for metropolitan transport, but also by the President of the users’ federation: solidarity pricing.
“We were still lucky enough, in mainland Bordeaux, to have solidarity pricing: even people who don’t have money don’t pay the full price” insists Christian Broucaret.
This pricing, implemented since 2021, and applied to the most vulnerable public, concerns 83,000 users out of the 235,000 in the TBM network. Among them, 80% benefit from free transport.
Furthermore, special rates are extended, notes Christian Broucaret. “In Bordeaux, we are young from 28 years old and we are old from 60 years old” before completing “you will watch on many networks, Toulouse for example, we are young until 24 years old and we are old from 65 years old.
For the President of the National Federation of Transport Users of Nouvelle Aquitaine, rest “Still pending the problem of network quality“.
If he excuses TBM in its difficulty in recruiting drivers,”hiring difficulties, we encounter them everywhere”he insists, he is much less tender towards the metropolis and the general problem of road maintenance and the implementation of maintenance work.
There are very often buses that do not have the displays working inside due to jolts that break the connectors.
Christian BroucaretPresident of the FNAUT of Nouvelle Aquitaine
“When we see that there is work being carried out on 1 m² and that repairs are being made, either dug or curved, when you pass, whatever the mode of transport, on foot, by bike in public transport or by car, you do not have a good quality coating”declares the user representative, before completing “It gives a bad image of public transport, because it is not comfortable and it damages the equipment a lot.”
Because he emphasizes, “The price is forgotten, the quality remains, and unfortunately the quality today is not really there.”
Christian Broucaret directly designates line B, as being the line on which there are the most incidents, and in particular one interchange in particular.
“St Nicolas/Peixotto, which is one of the main causes of breakdowns on line B, they have been denounced for more than 10 years and the work will barely be done this summer.”, he laments.
We may have waited too long to do the maintenance work
Christian BroucaretPresident of the FNAUT of Nouvelle Aquitaine
Thus, he does not call into question the ground electrification system of the tramway, but denounces the fact that it does not lead to enough maintenance: “For trams, there is wear which occurs on the intersections, and the APS system is much more fragile than the aerial contact line system.
A reality which the elected official of the agglomeration defends: “The maintenance of the lines follows, what has been complicated, especially this year, is the number of drivers.” But she specifies, “When we change a switch, we put substitute buses.”
Before discussing the cascading repercussions of any failure: “This is not like the train: when you are a subscriber, it is on one line. There, you buy a ticket, it’s for all lines.”
Afterwards, the user representative tempers: “ It should be noted that there is an increase in attendance, it is also a demonstration that it is not working that badly” because pragmatic “If it didn’t work, people wouldn’t take public transportation.”
