Paris metro ticket prices will almost double during the 2024 Olympics, the French capital region’s president said on Tuesday. The price hike, which will apply to single metro journey tickets and a new pass for visitors, is needed to help cover the costs of dramatically increasing transport network capacity to cope with the expected surge in demand, the region’s president, Valerie Pecresse, said. Residents with passes will be shielded from the temporary rise, and visitors will be charged “a fair price,” she added.
During the Games, the Île de France region will dramatically increase its transport offer to cope with the expected demand of 15 million visitors to the city during the Olympics, which will be held from July 26 to Aug. 11, and the Paralympics from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8. The Paris Olympics will have a much different feel from the stripped-down experience of Tokyo in 2021 when fewer than two million spectators turned out for a sports spectacle that was largely boycotted by the public because of Covid-19 protocols.
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, warned last week that many areas of the city could not rely on the usual level of public transport services during the Olympic period. She said that in addition to the transport system not being ready for the Olympic traffic, the city would need to find solutions to tackle homelessness and address ongoing problems such as the lack of sufficient trains running on the RER (regional express rail) network.
Ile-de-France Mobility, the transport organization in charge of the Olympics, will increase metro ticket prices starting Nov. 27 and launch a special pass for visitors costing 16 euros per day or 70 euros a week. Subscribers with monthly Navigo cards and other unique cards — including the Imagin’R and senior passes — will not be affected, the head of IDFM says in a video interview published by Le Parisien newspaper.
Tourists can buy a pass for the entire Ile de France region, including trips to Roissy and Orly airports. But the president of Ile-de-France Mobilites advises “occasional travelers” to anticipate the price increase and purchase their tickets before July 20, adding that they should also add the tickets to their Liberte+ cards ahead of time.
Organizers have already shelved some of the transport promises they made before the bid to host the Olympics, such as a promise that ticketed spectators could travel on public transport for free to competition venues. An express train they said would whisk passengers from Charles de Gaulle to central Paris in 20 minutes won’t open before the Games start, and a line under construction that they promised would transport athletes from the main airport to their accommodation in the northern outskirts isn’t now slated to be completed before the Games end. A special ticket that allows holders to use the entire public transport system during the Olympics will go on sale in May 2023.
