Last September, Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) announced a "simplification shock" for public transport users in the region. The jungle that was a price list has been cleared out to keep only a handful of prices that are easy to understand. Taking the rail network — metro, RER or train, regardless of the origin and distance — costs €2.50. It's €2 for a bus trip. And €13 to reach Parisian airports.
A headache for users
Added to this is the Liberté+ pass, which charges the Ile-de-France traveler for transport at the end of the month. The latter will pay €1.60 for a bus trip or €1.99 for the metro/RER/train, with a daily cap of €12. And of course, Navigo passes are still on the menu for those who travel regularly to work. These changes were implemented on January 1st, but as Michel Babut, vice-president of the National Federation of Transport User Associations of the Ile-de-France region, laments, "the transition was rushed", as he explained to Le Monde.
The first few days were indeed complicated, with parking meters that were not set correctly, which resulted in Liberté+ holders being charged two tickets instead of one. More annoyingly, the validators at some stations charge the highest price, as the machines cannot determine the traveler's mode of transport (train or tram). Laurent Probst, CEO of IDFM, hopes that the problem will be resolved with specific validators, but not before September. In the meantime, we'll have to live with it!
There are also problems specific to buses: old machines still sell T+ tickets without the free transfer. Another problem: it is still not possible to pass a validator with your smartphone while paying with your bank card - which is nevertheless possible in other cities, such as London or Lyon. This is a major project, "at least 100 million euros," says Laurent Probst, because 10,000 validators need to be replaced.
In addition, we are still waiting for the annual Liberté+ and Navigo passes to be supported in smartphones, which is more or less planned for this year. The transition to a simplified price scale is therefore not without its problems, and it will be expensive: budgeted at 30 million euros, it is likely to be much more according to experts.
Source: Le Monde
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