Paris’s public transport authority has been accused of initiating ‘a bit of a racket’ after raising the price of Métro tickets by more than 85% and doubling the cost of bus tickets during the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer.
A single journey ticket in the Métro will rise from €2.15 to €4, while a ticket for a city bus will double from €2.50 to €5 from 20 July – six days before the Games begin – and remain until 8 September, the transport authority RATP has announced.
Sami Kennouzi, of the CGT union at public transport company RATP, responsible for bus and tram workers, said it had not been consulted about the increase and only found out when the authority announced it.
“For us this ticket price increase doesn’t correspond to our idea of a public service and for such a global event it comes across as a bit of a racket for tourists and [local] passengers,” Kennouzi said.
City officials say most regular travellers will be unaffected by the hiked tariffs as they will already have transport passes, whose price has not risen. Those that do not have a pass have been advised to buy their tickets before 20 July.
One occasional bus user, Colombe, however, told BFM TV she would walk or cycle and avoid the bus. “Already the price for a short journey is high so I won’t be taking the bus for that price. We’ll find another solution,” she said.
Valérie Pécresse, the president of the Île-de-France regional authority, had previously said the aim of the Métro ticket hike, first announced in November, ahead of bus prices rises, was to avoid congestion at stations and urged Parisians to buy passes in advance. “I know a lot of ink has flowed on this subject … the ticket has been fixed at €4 precisely so nobody buys one,” she said in March.
She said there were an estimated 4 million occasional public transport users in the region and about 430,000 had signed up for a pass allowing them to avoid the higher ticket price. “Therefore, we have two months to convince around 3,570,000 people to do so,” she added.
The authority has set up a website to help locals plan for the Games, including details of roads and public transport showing which routes and lines will be most affected.
Three central Métro stations – Champs-Élysées – Clémenceau, Concorde and Tuileries, will be closed before the Games.
During the Games, 185km of road lanes around Paris will be reserved for vehicles carrying Olympic athletes, accredited journalists and members of official delegations.