Towards a Single Transportation Ticket for All of France?

That’s at least the wish of the Minister Delegate for Transport Clément Beaune, who confided this to our colleagues at the daily newspaper 20 Minutes.

We all experience it daily. Whether traveling for work or personal reasons within the country, you need to carry multiple transportation tickets, or queue endlessly at stations to obtain the precious pass. Who hasn’t heard a train conductor arriving in Paris offer to sell metro tickets at the bar car, or bus travelers with validated tickets being unable to enter the metro because their tickets are not compatible… As you can see, there are many examples.

To try to find a solution to these numerous situations, Minister Delegate for Transport Clément Beaune announced this Wednesday wanting to implement a single ticket within two years for public transportation, following discussions stemming from the Hackathon (IT professionals’ ideas contest) launched yesterday at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie (Paris) on the occasion of a forum by the Agency for Innovation in Transport.

“When I proposed this idea, I was told it would take at least ten years. But I am convinced that within two years, we can develop the single ticket across France,” he stated in an interview with our colleagues at 20 Minutes.

“I’m looking at what’s being done in other metropolises and major European countries. In Germany, for example, there is talk of a 49-euro ticket that’s being implemented. The real revolution is that they are moving toward a single ticket: one transportation pass, paper or digital, for all daily transport. The Netherlands has done it, the Swiss have committed to it, Austria is also considering it. Countries most committed to ecological transition are doing this. The single ticket to simplify users’ lives is a real revolution in transportation” he added.

A single fare?

The idea is thus to propose an equivalent to the Navigo pass in Île-de-France or Korrigo in Brittany, whether in the form of a credit card or directly on a smartphone via an app, allowing travel within each city without constraints. Beyond the feasibility of the project, many questions need to be addressed, such as whether to set a single fare or not, as well as funding and the potential competition from transportation actors like taxis or VTCs.

Source: 20minutes.fr

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