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Paris ends the paper Metro tickets in ‘carnets’

Buying a 'carnet' of cardboard Metro tickets - a rite of passage for many users of the capital's public transport system - has finally come to an end as the city moves towards paperless tickets.

Published: 15 April 2021 13:03 CEST
Updated: 21 September 2023 14:51 CEST
A commuter goes through a ticket gate at the Gare du Nord station. Paris is set to abolish packs of 10 physical metro tickets.
Paris is set to abolish packs of 10 physical metro tickets. Photo: Philippe LOPEZ / AFP.

As well as buying a single one of the small cardboard Metro tickets, users can also save money by buying 10 or 20 tickets at a time – known as a carnet – which work out cheaper per ticket.

But since 2021 transport operator Île de France Mobilités has been gradually phasing these out, and from Thursday it is no longer possible to buy the packs of 10 cardboard tickets.

It is, however, still possible to buy single tickets in their paper version. 

It’s part of an overall plan to make the city’s public transport system largely paperless and moving people towards phone apps and top-up cards to buy their Metro, bus, RER and tram tickets.

Alternatives

It is still possible to buy paper tickets for single journeys – this costs €2.10 if you are within the city of Paris or the inner suburbs. Journeys to the greater Île-de-France region are more expensive, with a single ticket to Charles de Gaulle airport from central Paris costing €11.45. 

Users can still purchase virtual carnets – 10 or 20 tickets at a time at a reduced price – using the Navigo Easy pass, which costs €2 and can be topped up at ticket machines or counters and via smartphone.

Tickets can also be bought either singly or in a carnet using the phone apps Île-de-France Mobilités, Bonjour RATP and SNCF Assistant – a carnet of 10 tickets costs €16.90, or €1.69 per ticket. 

If you are a more frequent user of public transport in Paris but don’t want to commit to an unlimited monthly pass, there is the Navigo Liberté + pass, which debits you for your total journeys at the end of each month.

It is also possible to purchase single bus tickets for €2 via text message.

READ ALSO The strange rules of the Paris Metro you should know about

1 in 10 tickets goes wasted

City authorities in Paris are pushing greener transport alternatives such as cycling, and have greatly expanded the city’s cycling infrastructure – pay-as-you go cards like the Navigo Liberté are intended for occasional public transport users, for example people who usually cycle to work but take the Metro if it rains. 

As well as environmental problems and littering, the cardboard tickets also frequently become demagnetised meaning that they cannot be used at automatic barriers.

Every year, nearly 5 million tickets are demagnetized because they are placed near keys or coins, according to RATP, and 10 percent of tickets from packs of ten are not used because they are lost, damaged or forgotten.

READ ALSO Praying to singing – all the things you can be fined for on the Paris Metro

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TRAVEL NEWS

Reader question: How do the EU’s new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

As European travellers prepare for the introduction of enhanced passport checks known as the Entry & Exit System (EES), many readers have asked us what this means for the '90-day rule' for non-EU citizens.

Published: 1 May 2024 07:18 CEST
Reader question: How do the EU's new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

From the start date to the situation for dual nationals and non-EU residents living in the EU, it’s fair to say that readers of The Local have a lot of questions about the EU’s new biometric passport check system known as EES.

You can find our full Q&A on how the new system will work HERE, or leave us your questions HERE.

And one of the most commonly-asked questions was what the new system changes with regards to the 90-day rule – the rule that allows citizens of certain non-EU countries (including the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to spend up to 90 days in every 180 in the EU without needing a visa.

And the short answer is – nothing. The key thing to remember about EES is that it doesn’t actually change any rules on immigration, visas etc.

Therefore the 90-day rule continues as it is – but what EES does change is the enforcement of the rule.

90 days 

The 90-day rule applies to citizens of a select group of non-EU countries;

Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, El Salvador, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Macau, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Taiwan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City and Venezuela.

Citizens of these countries can spend up to 90 days in every 180 within the EU or Schengen zone without needing a visa or residency permit.

People who are citizens of neither the EU/Schengen zone nor the above listed countries need a visa even for short trips into the EU – eg an Indian or Chinese tourist coming for a two-week holiday would require a visa. 

In total, beneficiaries of the 90-day rule can spend up to six months in the EU, but not all in one go. They must limit their visits so that in any 180-day (six month) period they have spent less than 90 days (three months) in the Bloc.

READ ALSO How does the 90-day rule work?

The 90 days are calculated according to a rolling calendar so that at any point in the year you must be able to count backwards to the last 180 days, and show that you have spent less than 90 of them in the EU/Schengen zone.

You can find full details on how to count your days HERE.

If you wish to spend more than 90 days at a time you will have to leave the EU and apply for a visa for a longer stay. Applications must be done from your home country, or via the consulate of your home country if you are living abroad.

Under EES 90-day rule beneficiaries will still be able to travel visa free (although ETIAS will introduce extra changes, more on that below).

EES does not change either the rule or how the days are calculated, but what it does change is the enforcement.

Enforcement

One of the stated aims of the new system is to tighten up enforcement of ‘over-stayers’ – that is people who have either overstayed the time allowed on their visa or over-stayed their visa-free 90 day period.

At present border officials keep track of your time within the Bloc via manually stamping passports with the date of each entry and exit to the Bloc. These stamps can then be examined and the days counted up to ensure that you have not over-stayed.

The system works up to a point – stamps are frequently not checked, sometimes border guards incorrectly stamp a passport or forget to stamp it as you leave the EU, and the stamps themselves are not always easy to read.

What EES does is computerise this, so that each time your passport is scanned as you enter or leave the EU/Schengen zone, the number of days you have spent in the Bloc is automatically tallied – and over-stayers will be flagged.

For people who stick to the limits the system should – if it works correctly – actually be better, as it will replace the sometimes haphazard manual stamping system.

But it will make it virtually impossible to over-stay your 90-day limit without being detected.

The penalties for overstaying remain as they are now – a fine, a warning or a ban on re-entering the EU for a specified period. The penalties are at the discretion of each EU member state and will vary depending on your personal circumstances (eg how long you over-stayed for and whether you were working or claiming benefits during that time).

ETIAS 

It’s worth mentioning ETIAS at this point, even though it is a completely separate system to EES, because it will have a bigger impact on travel for many people.

ETIAS is a different EU rule change, due to be introduced some time after EES has gone live (probably in 2025, but the timetable for ETIAS is still somewhat unclear).

It will have a big impact on beneficiaries of the 90-day rule, effectively ending the days of paperwork-free travel for them.

Under ETIAS, beneficiaries of the 90-rule will need to apply online for a visa waiver before they travel. Technically this is a visa waiver rather than a visa, but it still spells the end of an era when 90-day beneficiaries can travel without doing any kind of immigration paperwork.

If you have travelled to the US in recent years you will find the ETIAS system very similar to the ESTA visa waiver – you apply online in advance, fill in a form and answer some questions and are sent your visa waiver within a couple of days.

ETIAS will cost €7 (with an exemption for under 18s and over 70s) and will last for three years.

Find full details HERE. 

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