End of the line for Paris’ iconic metro ticket

[mike57]

I was often uncertain whether or not it had registered on gates and in buses as often there was normally nothing audible.

I think its less important as you buy a day ticket (or multi day) which is prepaid, so if you dont use the ticket to pass into out of the system the system doesn't care as long as you have a ticket valid at that point if checked. I think when your pass is read when you board a bus or tram the driver weeds out the bad ones.

And yes there are roving ticket checks, my wife was checked returning to our hotel, no problems for her, the person opposite was ticketless and was removed from the train as well as given a fine.

 

[SocietyForFer]

There are bings when you touch on most (probably all) buses and trams, but sometimes the gates at trains don't work properly but if they let you through then I assume it works.

The ticket checks caught me out as I forgot that even buying a ticket on a bus requires you to validate the ticket in the machine.

 

[Mag_seven]

Just a gentle reminder that this thread is for discussion of the Paris Metro Ticket

Discussion about Lille Europe station can now be found here:

Lille Europe Station

Moderator note - split from: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/end-of-the-line-for-paris%E2%80%99-iconic-metro-ticket.237990/ Do Paris Eurostar trains normally run via Lille Europe? They did in both directions and I wondered if this was a diversion due to the extensive flooding in northern...

www.railforums.co.uk

thanks

 

[jfollows]

A single ticket is going to cost €4 instead of the usual €2.10 to gouge visitors to the Olympics between 20/7 and 8/9 next year (https://www.businesstraveller.com/b...kets-to-double-in-price-during-2024-olympics/)

Paris metro tickets to double in price during 2024 Olympics​

1 Dec 2023 by Hannah Brandler


Metro ticket prices in the French capital will almost double during the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
A single metro ticket will increase from €2.10 to €4 for the period of 20 July until 8 September, a few days either side of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The temporary hike has been described as a “fair price” by Valérie Pécresse, president of the Île-de-France region.
The price increase will only impact visitors to the city, with residents’ monthly and yearly metro passes unaffected.
Pecresse announced the news on X (formerly Twitter):
“During the Olympics and the Paralympics, the Ile de France region will dramatically increase its transport offer. It is out of question that the residents support that cost.
“We’re going to create a new pass, the Paris 2024 pass, that will allow visitors to travel through the whole Ile de France region. It will cost 16 euros a day, and up to 70 euros a week.”
She also recommended that Parisians without monthly or annual passes should stock up on tickets ahead of the 20 July surcharge.
The city of Paris is aiming to make the 2024 Games the greenest in history, and there is a concerted focus on promoting the use of public transport for travelling to competition venues.
All sites are set to be accessible via a combination of metro, trains, buses, taxis and trams, with public transport reinforced to take up to 500,000 spectators per day during the Olympics, and up to 300,000 for the Paralympics.
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, warned last week however that public transport services will be unable to cope with demand during the events.
Metro operator RATP has also launched translation service Tradivia, which will be used by staff across the network’s stations to translate spoken queries and provide responses back to the visitor in their language. The app is capable of translating 16 languages.
The Olympics will take place from 26 July until 11 August, followed by the Paralympics from 28 August until 8 September.
Earlier this year we travelled to Paris to discover how the city is gearing up for the 2024 Games:

 

[island]

RATP paper tickets don’t expire so tickets purchased prior to the increase could presumably still be used.

 

[Birkonian]

I've got a Navigo pass which I can pre-load before the price increase.

 

[mad_rich]

Just posted about this in another thread.

I was surprised to find that paper tickets still haven't died off. The axe seems to have been imminent forever!

 

[Thames99]

I think that depends on the ticket you want to buy, doesn't it? A Navigo Semaine week ticket, for instance, can only be bought for the following week.

There is some political to and fro in France regarding the price rise, as when Paris applied to host the Olympics the metro was going to be free (not doubled in price!). You never know ...

 

[ainsworth74]

I was surprised to find that paper tickets still haven't died off. The axe seems to have been imminent forever!

They need to make it easier to get hold of NaviGo cards, using phones as tickets and preferably PAYG using a contactless card before they can kill paper off properly surely?

 

[island]

Just posted about this in another thread.

I was surprised to find that paper tickets still haven't died off. The axe seems to have been imminent forever!

Not only have they not died off, but paper tickets are the only option for single/return RER train journeys that are not entirely within zone 1.

I think that depends on the ticket you want to buy, doesn't it? A Navigo Semaine week ticket, for instance, can only be bought for the following week.

Well, it can be bought up until Thursday for the current week, but the underlying point stands. However, single and one day paper tickets can be bought and used at any stage, and t+ tickets can be loaded onto a Navigo Easy pass in advance too.

They need to make it easier to get hold of NaviGo cards, using phones as tickets and preferably PAYG using a contactless card before they can kill paper off properly surely?

Navigo Easy cards are sold at TVMs at larger stations now, and they as well as Navigo Découverte can be bought at any booking office, which unlike London, have not closed. Compatible NFC phones can be used in lieu of a Navigo card. Acceptance of contactless at the ticket gates would however require a wholesale upgrade programme for station ticket gates.

 

[ainsworth74]

Navigo Easy cards are sold at TVMs at larger stations now, and they as well as Navigo Découverte can be bought at any booking office, which unlike London, have not closed.

Though more machines that can issue them would be helpful, at Paris Nord for instance the queues at both were horrendous. I did finally sort one at Monteparnasse thankfully from a machine on the main concourse away from the Metro.

Compatible NFC phones can be used in lieu of a Navigo card.

In theory, it seems like a lot of NFC phones are not compatible for some reason. Mine isn't despite only being a few years old and this is the only thing I've ever tried that hasn't worked so I'm more inclined to blame the Metro than I am my phone!

Acceptance of contactless at the ticket gates would however require a wholesale upgrade programme for station ticket gates.

Didn't say it would be easy to roll out contactless

 

[mike57]

using phones as tickets

In theory, it seems like a lot of NFC phones are not compatible for some reason

You can certainly load a Navigo pass on a compatible Android phone without a physical pass. Most modern phones have the required hardware. There was a problem with iPhones which boiled down to a row between Apple and RATP/Ile de France Mobilites, you can read and load a Navigo pass using an iPhone, but you couldn't use the phone instead of a physical pass. Edit: and there may be other problems, but my Samsung S22 works fine

I would imagine that there will be different weekly rates for the 'residents' version of Navigo and Navigo Decouverte during the Olympics. The 'ordinary' Navigo is only available to those living or working in the Ile-de-France according to the Mobilites Ile-de-France website. Navigo Decouverte is available to anyone.

 

[D6130]

The 'ordinary' Navigo is only available to those living or working in the Ile-de-France according to the Mobilites Ile-de-France website. Navigo Decouverte is available to anyone.

My wife and I have (physical) Navigo Easy passes, purchased from a ticket machine. At no stage in the process were we asked where we lived.

 

[mike57]

My wife and I have (physical) Navigo Easy passes, purchased from a ticket machine. At no stage in the process were we asked where we lived.

Thats yet another type of Navigo pass... I never said the Paris transport system payment options for the various passes are easy to navigate

You cant put a weekly or longer ticket on Navigo Easy, only t+ and daily tickets

 

[Peter Mugridge]

RATP paper tickets don’t expire so tickets purchased prior to the increase could presumably still be used.

It actually says in that quoted release that Parisien residents without passes should stock up in advance, so yes - they can.

 

[island]

You cant put a weekly or longer ticket on Navigo Easy, only t+ and daily tickets

And Roissybus!

 

[ainsworth74]

You can certainly load a Navigo pass on a compatible Android phone without a physical pass. Most modern phones have the required hardware. There was a problem with iPhones which boiled down to a row between Apple and RATP/Ile de France Mobilites, you can read and load a Navigo pass using an iPhone, but you couldn't use the phone instead of a physical pass. Edit: and there may be other problems, but my Samsung S22 works fine

Yes I am aware, having tried to sort this but apparently a OnePlus 8 Pro doesn't have the requisites to work with it, which makes RATP/Ile de France Mobilities the only people whose app doesn't work with my phone properly that I've ever come across. Though ironically my phone can interact with the physical NaviGo card to check for tickets and add additional tickets to it which further leads me to suspect that it's the app that's at fault, not my phone...

Put it this way I found the Paris Metro and suburban rail services to be the trickiest network to access tickets for that I've ever come across, including in comparison to other cities in France(!), so it feels like they have more work to do to make it easier for people to use!

 

[mike57]

Put it this way I found the Paris Metro and suburban rail services to be the trickiest network to access tickets for that I've ever come across, including in comparison to other cities in France(!), so it feels like they have more work to do to make it easier for people to use!

I would agree, I am one of the moderatosr for a Paris tourist related website on Facebook and we get a lot of public transport queries. To be honest it feels like its just 'happened' rather than been planned. I mean why didnt they just combine the Navigo Easy and Navigo Decouverte into one card for a start instead of introducing yet another option. Also working out the most cost effective option is difficult if you are staying for a few days. If staying more than a couple of days we usually advise the Navigo Decouverte is the best option unless t+ tickets will suffice.

 

[stuu]

You can certainly load a Navigo pass on a compatible Android phone without a physical pass. Most modern phones have the required hardware. There was a problem with iPhones which boiled down to a row between Apple and RATP/Ile de France Mobilites, you can read and load a Navigo pass using an iPhone, but you couldn't use the phone instead of a physical pass. Edit: and there may be other problems, but my Samsung S22 works fine

I had problems trying to load it on my newish Samsung last summer, the app would load and you could select tickets but at the paying stage it suddenly decided my phone wasn't compatible. The fact it needs a secondary app to actually store the tickets suggests they have done something unusual (how very French of them )

 

[urbophile]

They need to make it easier to get hold of NaviGo cards, using phones as tickets and preferably PAYG using a contactless card before they can kill paper off properly surely?

Interesting to see that Paris is in sync with Merseyrail!

 

[mike57]

I had problems trying to load it on my newish Samsung last summer, the app would load and you could select tickets but at the paying stage it suddenly decided my phone wasn't compatible. The fact it needs a secondary app to actually store the tickets suggests they have done something unusual (how very French of them )

I think generally it's not reliable, some people have problems, and some don't, and to be honest I haven't managed to work out what will or won't work. As others have said they should do better.

 

[Birkonian]

I suggest that the the Navigo Easy card is the answer for occasional visitors. Download the app, hold the card against your phone, then top up single trip tickets. Works fine with my 3 years old Samsung phone. Only problem, as stated, is purchasing the card in the first place. Queues at Gard de Nord are horrendous.

 

[D6130]

I suggest that the the Navigo Easy card is the answer for occasional visitors. Download the app, hold the card against your phone, then top up single trip tickets. Works fine with my 3 years old Samsung phone. Only problem, as stated, is purchasing the card in the first place. Queues at Gard de Nord are horrendous.

I realise that not everyone is in a position to do this, but we purchased our Navigo Easy cards at a relatively quiet Métro station (Jourdain) close to where our friend lives, with whom we stay in Paris on our way to and from Italy. The whole process at the office took less than a minute for the two of us, after which we topped-up the number of journeys required at a ticket machine, using our credit cards. If you have the time, I would recommend a five minute walk round the corner from Gare du Nord to Magenta RER station, which is much less busy, especially in the off-peak.

 

[dutchflyer]

There is some political to and fro in France regarding the price rise, as when Paris applied to host the Olympics the metro was going to be free (not doubled in price!). You never know ...

Was not that only for participants and/or viewers? This latter is very common in many other countries with integrated transport.
In general the price of local transport seems to be an issue in FR-its relatively quite cheap in most cities/departements. Not so-or much, much lesss for trains by SNCF-though this also varies by region.

 

[island]

I suggest that the the Navigo Easy card is the answer for occasional visitors. Download the app, hold the card against your phone, then top up single trip tickets. Works fine with my 3 years old Samsung phone. Only problem, as stated, is purchasing the card in the first place. Queues at Gard de Nord are horrendous.

Fine if you're sticking to central Paris. If you want to head to Disney, or Versailles, or the Stade de France by RER it's no good.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Fine if you're sticking to central Paris. If you want to head to Disney, or Versailles, or the Stade de France by RER it's no good.

Does the Easy not cover all the zones, then?

 

[island]

Does the Easy not cover all the zones, then?

The tickets you can load onto Navigo Easy are:

• t+ tickets – valid anywhere on the bus, metro, or tramway. Valid only within zone 1 on RER.
• 1-day tickets for zones 1-5 or any subset. Valid on RER, bus, metro, and tramway, but not Orlyval.
  • This includes youth weekend one-day tickets and "antipollution" discounted day tickets
• Single tickets for the airport coaches

Neither Navigo Easy nor any other Navigo card has a "stored value" feature like Oyster.

You cannot get single or return RER tickets for journeys outside of zone 1 in any other format than paper magstripe tickets.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Thank you; having only ever used the Decouverte the details are rather different from what I'm used to.

 

[AlbertBeale]

As of a couple of weeks ago, Eurostar was still selling the books of 10 of the traditional card tickets in the buffet on their train - and indeed was promoting them. Whether this is just until their stocks run out, I don't know; but I got some anyway (even though I didn't need them for that trip) since as far as I'm concerned they're the easiest option for one-off hops across Paris if I'm not staying any longer than just changing trains there. From experience years ago when finding myself with an extremely ancient (and very mangled) - though not actually used - card ticket, I know "the system" there seems very good at exchanging new-for-old tickets indefinitely, so I don't think I risk being out of pocket by having bought more now. (In the same way, I understand the old card "Saver tickets" on London buses - which were phased out prior to the switch to all-Oyster/contactless payments years ago - are still accepted from anyone who still has some...)

 

[island]

(In the same way, I understand the old card "Saver tickets" on London buses - which were phased out prior to the switch to all-Oyster/contactless payments years ago - are still accepted from anyone who still has some...)

TfL still sells them to bulk purchasers as far as I know.