Sorry, I've read this several times and thought I knew the answer, but I'm suffering from information overload right now and my mind is numb; I can't even find where I read it.

So . . . if I buy a carnet of 10 Paris Metro tickets for zones 1 and 2, are they also good for RER's in zones 1 and 2? Thanx. ("I'll take my answer off the air," as they say on NPR.)

"Thank you for taking my call."

Yes, the carnet's tickets are good on the RER within those zones.

Yes, I just found the answer to my own question, thanks. (I thought so.) LOL to stokebailey. If ever I call The Diane Rehm Show, I have vowed never to say the inane "Thank you for taking my call."

Don't throw away your ticket after you enter, as you would while riding the metro. You'll need the ticket to get out of the RER system, as well as to get a free transfer to the metro.

>>Don't throw away your ticket after you enter, as you would while riding the metro<<

rkkwan, your comment reminded me that I was going to post this information about metro tickets for people like you and my husband, who I was surprised to realize didn't know this after dozens of visits to Paris: DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR METRO TICKET UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE LEFT THE SYSTEM!

I guess we'd been lucky previously, but a few months ago we were stopped by a ticket control "trap" in the metro. I flashed my Carte Orange and started to move on but realized that my husband, who hadn't bought a CO, was being detained. He had tossed his metro ticket into a trash can just past the entry gate "like I always do".

I'd never noticed him doing that and had always assumed he knew that you have to be able to prove at any point that you have paid for the trip. Because he had a few other tickets left from his carnet he was fined only 25E rather than the 35E originally demanded. And he had to pay on the spot.

I don't know if there are more of these "traps" that there used to be, but we hit another one on the same trip (the first was in a connecting station, the second at the destination station). Luckily my husband had the receipt he had been given and showed it at the second occasion.

When I mentioned this experience to a Parisian friend he said he runs into this at least once a week. I have to admit it's the first time I came across this since they stopped differentiating between 1st and 2nd class cars.

Why would anyone immediately throw any a ticket as soon as they entered the system? This doesn't even make any sense. I don't know why anyone would do that on any metro system in any city.

No, I don't throw away the ticket right away. So, I shouldn't have said that's what people would normally do. My point is that you don't need a ticket to get out of the Metro system, but you would for the RER.

Anyways, this is what happens to my mom last time we were in Paris. She's just the opposite of throwing away Metro tickets too early. Instead, she had been <b>saving up</b> all hers. Well, we got into RER, and she put her ticket to her stash of other used one. Houston, we have a problem, as when we need to get out, she has to try each of her ticket to find the current one that will let her out!

Some cities' subways don't require ticket to exit or to prove anything once within the system: NYC's for instance last time I was there.

The Paris M&eacute;tro (regular subway) requires a ticket only to enter the system, not to leave it. However, you're supposed to keep the ticket until you leave the system, in order to prove that you've paid if transit agents do a spot check (which they often do).

In the RER express subway, you need to use your ticket to get in <i>and</i> to get out.

The reason for this is that the M&eacute;tro is essentially one fare zone for all possible trips, whereas the RER has multiple fare zones. The RER thus verifies that you've paid for the right zones when you leave, whereas this isn't necessary for M&eacute;tro lines.

As already mentioned, the same ticket works for both M&eacute;tro and RER (and buses) within whichever zones it is valid for. You can even change between them on one ticket if your trip requires it.

If you look at an ordinary metro ticket, it is printed &quot;M - Bus - T - RER dans Paris&quot; on the front.
&quot;T&quot;, by the way, stands for tramway, of which there are 2 lines in the suburbs and a 3rd one in Paris itself opening at the end of the year.

The funicular at Montmarte is also included.

But of course, free transfer is only between Metro lines and RER. No between trains and buses.

However, I have read that the RATP is planning on allowing metro-bus transfers soon. Next year, maybe?

&gt;&gt; The funicular at Montmarte is also included. &lt;&lt;

And the Paris-Saint-Lazare - Pont-Cardinet ride on the SNCF commuter network (it is since 1997 the only SNCF commuter trip wholly within Zone 1).

Oh, by the way, there is a truly misleading mistake in the answers of this thread.

There is NO such thing as a single ticket for &quot;zones 1 and 2&quot;.

There is the Ticket T, which used to be known as the Section Urbaine ticket.

And there are point-to-point tickets for definite stations on the RER/SNCF commuter networks. On those point-to-point tickets, if applicable, Paris is the whole of Zone 1.

A &quot;ticket&quot; taken out of a carnet of 10 &quot;Ticket T&quot; tickets is valid _only within Zone 1_ on the RER. That is, between Charles de Gaulle-Etoile and Nation on Line A, between Gare du Nord and Cit&eacute; Universitaire on Line B, between Porte de Clichy/Boulevard Victor and Biblioth&egrave;que Fran&ccedil;ois Mitterand on Line C, between Gare du Nord and Gare de Lyon opn Line D and between Magenta and Haussmann Saint Lazare on Line E.

In the past, Gentilly used to be included in Section Urbaine/Zone 1, but it's no more the case.

I don't know where some read that such a ticket is also valid on Zone 2. They used to bear a 2 which meaning was &quot;2nd class&quot;, and never Zone 2.

So, I will make a definitive sum-up about Ticket T aka &quot;carnet&quot; tickets :

they are valid for

- any ride on the M&eacute;tro within 2 hours, notwithstanding the actual zoneage of the origin/destination stations (some M&eacute;tro stations are in Zone 3).

- any ride on the RER within Zone 1 (see above), plus St Lazare-Pont Cardinet

- any ride on the RATP bus, notwithstanding the zones crossed, transfers excluded, but on lines 295, 350, 351, Orlybus and Roissybus

- any ride on the OPTILE bus network, but express motorway lines.

sorry, I forgot two items :

- the Montmartre funicular

- any ride on the tramway lines T1, T2 and (nextcoming) T3, without transfers. Very similar to the bus rules, actually. The situation on Bondy/Aulnay T4 line due to open in November is unclear.

To the 'bus' item, add Balabus, all Noctilien lines, and lines 221, 297, 299 (and remove 295) to the &quot;lines where ticket T is not valid for a single journey&quot; list.