Occasional users of public transport in the Paris region often have a hard time navigating the maze of ticket prices. Each means of transport has its own price. To remedy this, according to information from Le Parisien confirmed by the regional transport authority Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), from January 2025, metro, RER and train tickets will be at a unit price of 2.50 euros regardless of the destination and distance travelled.
Occasional travellers who only make journeys within Paris will therefore see their transport budget increase next year. The cost of a ticket will increase from 2.15 euros (or 1.73 euros per book of 10, which will disappear) to 2.50 euros. On the other hand, the 3 million other occasional users who bought OD (Origin-Destination) tickets will all pay less on average.
” The goal is to take the logic of the single Navigo pass to its conclusion. This time for occasional travelers with the same principle: the same transport price for all Parisians, whether they live in the outer suburbs or in Paris. “, said Valérie Pécresse, president of IDFM, in an interview with Le Parisien published online Tuesday. This reform is self-financed. It has a theoretical cost of 30 million euros in revenue per year if behavior does not change. But we believe that these new rates will result in an increase in the use of transport of around 1 to 2% and we will intensify the fight against fraud. »
” A socially acceptable price »
The LR president of the region defended a price of 2.50 euros, ” a socially and economically acceptable price, while the theoretical equilibrium price would be 2.80 euros. “For the bus/tram ticket, it will be 2 euros. The Liberté+ formula, a post-payment card currently operating in Paris, will be extended to the whole of the Ile-de-France, with the advantage of offering a connection between bus and tram or metro.
Public transport during the Olympic Games: IDFM welcomes a success that will continue to benefit the people of the Paris region
Greeting as ” good news “The implementation of this single tariff, the left-wing opposition to the regional president judges in a press release that the announced self-financing” remains to be demonstrated even if we can guess that the increase in the price of the ticket to use the metro (which will go from €2.15 to €2.50, i.e. +16%) will generate significant revenue and some disappointments. “.
” This announcement comes without debate, prior information or a vote by the board of directors of Ile-de-France Mobilités. “, deplores Céline Malaisé, president of the communist, ecologist and citizen left, who notes that this reform will apply on January 1, 2025, ” either the day a new price increase comes into force “.
The Legacy of the Games
Little waiting on the platforms, plenty of space on the trains even at peak times, almost no incidents and a reduction in incivility due to a massive human and police presence have changed the face of the metro and RER during this Olympic fortnight. Not everything will be reproducible “, was able to concede the vice-president of IDFM, Grégoire de Lasteyrie, at the end of the Olympic Games, insisting on the cost that such a system represents. Transport with this level of service is expensive, as recalled by the price of the ticket at 4 euros instead of 2.15 euros from July 20 to September 8, to finance the improvement of the offer during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Another particularity specific to the Games: there were no traffic interruptions due to roadworks, which were put on hold for the duration of the competition. But ” we cannot permanently stop having work on an infrastructure “, warned the official. On the other hand, he insisted on ” the legacy of the games ” with the installation of water points in different stations, the improvement of cleanliness and new infrastructures (line 14, RER E, line 11) which change the lives of the inhabitants. Some improvements will continue, such as the management of abandoned luggage, responsible for many delays on the network since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. The recruitment of new dog detection brigades and the authorization obtained just before the Games to use sirens and flashing lights to go and remove doubts more quickly, will continue.
(With AFP)
