What does the arrival of the RATP in Lyon really change from January 1, 2025?

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Will Lyon move closer to Paris and Ile-de-France with the arrival of the RATP, a historic first to operate most of the public transport network of the Lyon metropolitan area (TCL) from this date? January 1, 2025?

Not really. We explain to you what the arrival of the company changes in the daily lives of residents of the Lyon metropolis.

RATP replaces Keolis

What concrete changes for network users this arrival of the RATP, more precisely of RATP Dev ? It is in fact the RATP subsidiary which is arriving in France's third city and not the “RATP” brand visible on the metros, buses and trams of the Ile-de-France region.

The company can indeed boast of managing other metro, bus or tram networks in Paris, London, Cairo, Washington and several countries in the Middle East. The changes therefore take place mainly behind the scenes in the workings of operations and not for the part visible to users.

The “TCL” brand remains

There is therefore no question of seeing RATP logos flourish on the network, tickets or entrances to metro stations. There “TCL” brand is retained and this is what the network continues to be called for its Lyon users.

Concretely, Sytral Mobilités, which manages the development of networks in the mainland and in the Rhône, has decided to “cut in two” the operation of TCL which it is entrusting for the first time in its history to two competing companies.

RATP Dev replaces Keolis for the metro, trams, funiculars, Rhônexpress and future river shuttles. Keolis still retains bus management.

No Navigo Pass, no different tickets

With the arrival of the RATP, there will be no launch of the famous Navigo Pass, well known to Parisians. The TCL subscription is retained.

The same goes for tickets: even if there are two different operators between buses and metros, there will be no need for separate ticketing.

Automatic switching of employees to RATP

The main change mainly concerns employees. While all the agents worked under the single Keolis banner, some were transferred to RATP Dev.

Bruno Bernard, the president of the Metropolis, assured that a “social base” is planned and that the arrival of the RATP is accompanied by automatic switch of Keolis employees to the new operator. There will be “no questioning of the social rights” of employees of the TCL network (salaries, bonuses, seniority, etc.), according to the elected official.

Sytral Mobilités will cover “for two years” the “additional cost” linked to seniority in the event of an employee changing operator. For example, a Keolis bus driver who would like to become a metro driver at RATP Lyon.

The bus part, however, remains the one which will have the most employees: 3,000 in total, including 2,300 drivers. The Greater Lyon bus network remains the largest in France to be open to competition with 73 municipalities served and 136 bus lines, eight trolleybus lines.

Punctuality objectives and more checks on travelers

In any case, RATP claims to have “made 220 concrete operational commitments” to win the Lyon market.

The company is committed to more punctuality of metros and trams. The punctuality objective is raised to 95% for metros and 80% for tram lines overall according to Arnaud Legrand, director of RATP Lyon. It also targets “20% increase in the number of trips on the network in ten years” or the use of more “clean” energy for vehicles.

Traveler checks to combat fraud are also likely to be more intense from 2025. “We have new contracts which begin on January 1, 2025 with RATP and Keolis for the TCL network. It is expected that the controls will be stronger in the new contract,” explained Bruno Bernard in an interview with news Lyon.

A local public user relations company created for the occasion

A concrete element will also be looked at closely: the implementation of bus relay shuttles (operated by Keolis) in the event of a metro breakdown (RATP). The two operators will have to work together without users seeing the difference in service… The two companies have been preparing for this for months.

In addition, an SPL RU (local public user relations company) was created, bringing together Sytral and the Métropole de Lyon. It is this entity which will manage passenger information (site, application, screens, social networks, etc.), subscriptions, transport tickets and also bring together Velo'v, car sharing and carpooling.

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