Parisians tend to lead the way in terms of fashion and style, but they’re just now offering travelers a transportation option other major cities have already implemented: reusable plastic metro cards.
For almost 120 years, Paris has used Metro tickets to access their public transportation. That’s all about to change as the French capital announced Wednesday they would be introducing Navigo Easy cards to phase out the single-use paper tickets.
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“A ticket thrown on the ground takes a year to decompose,” Valerie Pécresse, the head of public transport in Paris, said at a press conference. “We have been late when it comes to [adopting sustainable options for] the ticketing system.”
What’s more, is passengers were complaining the antiquated ticketing system led to costing them money, and that’s another reason why the change was implemented. “It’s over, the days of tickets that become demagnetized in your pocket,” said Pécresse. “It’s over, the dozens of euros lost due to tickets from another era.”
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While the Navigo Decouverte, a multi-use seven-day pass, has existed for years, it requires a photo ID for purchase. Instead, this new rechargeable pass is geared towards travelers as you don’t need a photo ID to purchase one. Much like London’s Oyster Card, the new contactless travel pass can be filled with a credit card at a self-serve machine or manned counter. In a year, it’s expected that people will be able to refill their cards from a smartphone.
For now, the card can only be used on Paris Metro, OrlyBus and RoissyBus, but is expected to cover the entire public transportation system eventually. Even with the change, fares will remain the same: €1.90 (US$2.15) for a single-trip ticket and €14.90 (US$16.86) for ten trips. The card itself will cost €2 ($2.24), and paper tickets will no longer be issued by summer 2020.
