The arrival of the Navigo Liberté+ pass was supposed to be accompanied by greater price transparency in Parisian public transport. Since January 2025, it has been possible to benefit from reduced rates on the entire Île-de-France Mobilités network, while traveling à la carte. You validate throughout the month, and you are only debited the following month, via a single invoice. Rather practical on paper, then.
The fact remains that the system, if it wants to establish itself as the future of transport in the Paris region, is accompanied above all by recurring malfunctions. In an investigation by our colleagues at Le Parisien, we discovered that some users were charged twice for metro-RER connections.
Double billing for a single journey
The problem lies in the management of free connections for two hours for the RER/metro and 1h30 for the bus/tram. Some equipment, inherited from the paper system, continues to interpret changes in transport mode as separate journeys, even when it involves a connection. At Bir-Hakeim and Porte de Clichy, for example, users are billed twice, despite an interval of less than 15 minutes between the two validations of their journey. Enough to cause some inconvenience when the final bill comes.
Beyond the localized technical bugs, on which the RATP assures to have deployed fixes, many incidents (41% according to Le Parisien) are also due to a misinterpretation of the rules by users. Indeed, the Navigo Liberté+ requires systematic validation at each entry without leaving the zone. However, certain zones such as Châtelet can easily mislead novice travelers and lead them to accidentally leave the fare zone, which will have the effect of triggering a new journey via the Liberté+ rules. Certain connections that require leaving a station for a few minutes to reach another are also affected. Also, the two-hour maximum delay imposed for connections can quickly be exceeded in the event of a long journey or disruptions to the network.
How to get your refund?
Good news, however, if you have had the unpleasant surprise of being charged twice for a journey, there are remedies. In addition to the update of the 15,000 obsolete validators, certain complex stations such as Gare du Nord or Châtelet will benefit from floor markings and interactive panels by the end of the year.
Push notifications will also be sent directly to the Île-de-France Mobilités application, warning of the risks of double billing before validation. Upstream, a journey simulator will also allow you to anticipate the cost and validations required for a route.
For dissatisfied customers, IDFM has also announced a massive refund campaign to manually process complaints from Liberté+ holders. However, you will have to act quickly: go to your Navigo customer area within 15 working days to assert your rights. Bad news, however, for Easy pass users, since no standardized procedure is planned.
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