Big improvement in Paris transport
 

It's official -- as of July 1st, 2007 you can transfer between buses and tramways and back again for a 90-minute period. I'm not sure about transferring from the metro, but I'll try to look it up. July 1 is also the day of the annual fare increase.

Also, tickets are going from purple to white.

Here's the full info nugget:

A compter du 1er juillet prochain, en Ile-de-France, le prix du ticket de métro (et de bus) vendu à l'unité devrait augmenter de 7 % et passer de 1,40 à 1,50 €. Cette forte augmentation sera compensée par une nouveauté : il sera possible de changer de bus ou de tramway durant 1h30 en conservant le même ticket.

Les abonnements, quant à eux, devraient être revalorisés de 1,8 %, soit le coût de l'inflation.

Okay, it just took a few minutes: no transfer between metro and surface transport "yet".

Also, the new tickets will not be valid on the night buses (0:30 to 5:30) -- not sure what sort of ticket those will be using.

...but if my reading of it is correct you will be able to transfer from one bus to another during a 90 minute period (1h 30 is 1 hour and 30 minutes or 90 minutes)...but nothing indicates any free transfer from metro to bus.

...the other question is will unused purple tickets maintain their validity?

Thanks for the heads up kerouac!

My 2nd message confirms that no transfer is possible between metro and bus ("yet").

All old tickets remain valid indefinitely -- this has been the case ever since tickets were created with magnetic strips.

In what may be bad news, the video screens in the metro this morning were saying the carte orange coupons are being eliminated "soon" (since they are trying to get everybody to move to the NaviGo microchip card). I am thinking that the carte orange will indeed become a "residents only" item once you can't buy the coupons anymore.

Re 't' ticket validity: Prior to our departure for our last trip to Paris (April 2007), I found, in my hoard of travel paraphenalia, some unused Paris metro tix, dating from a trip in 2002. With some skepticism I took them along - and lo, they worked. So, seeing as I hoard this kind of stuff anyway, now I have 4 purple (as opposed to light green) tickets tucked away....

The price of a carnet will be 11.10 instead of 10.90 starting July 1st.

If you buy a single ticket on the bus for 1.50, it will not be valid for other bus transfers. Only tickets from a carnet can be used for transfers.

The Ile de France transport authority is naturally pleased to point out that the ticket fares cover only 39% of the cost of transportation, compared to 68% in Madrid, 62.6% in London and 54.5% in Barcelona.

Thanks for the heads up, kerouac.

Thanks for the heads up, K.

Posted to Paris Superthread.

((I))

I'm going to miss my little Carte Orange coupon jaune hebdomodaire...... and grit my teeth till it hurts if we're stuck with Paris Visite.