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Paris travel pass holders offered refunds over poor service in 2022

Public transport authorities in the Paris region have announced they will offer reimbursements for certain travel pass holders who suffered from delayed and limited services in 2022.

Paris travel pass holders offered refunds over poor service in 2022
A commuter buys a ticket for the RATP (Paris' public transports operator) public transport (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

The reimbursements will be allotted as part of two campaigns – one for people who held Navigo passes during the final months of 2022 and another focused on those who encountered the most difficulties with certain parts of the RER system during the calendar year of 2022.

For most eligible people, the reimbursement will be equivalent to at least half of cost of a monthly Navigo pass, or €37.60, according to Service-Public. Passengers who use RER lines B and D may be eligible for additional compensation.

Why offer the reimbursement?

Valérie Pécresse, head of regional transport authority IDFM, said that between September and December 2022, Paris region transport users “suffered a severe deterioration in the quality of transport, linked to recruitment difficulties and numerous widespread industrial action that disrupted operations”, according to Le Figaro.

Pécresse also noted that “punctuality rates for RER lines B and D fell below 80 percent” at certain points of 2022.

READ MORE: How to find cheap train tickets in France

Who qualifies?

Anyone who purchased a Navigo Passes during the final four months of 2022 will qualify for the partial refund as part of IDFM’s “general campaign”. In this case, you would be allotted a reimbursement worth of up to half of your monthly Navigo pass (€37.60). 

This includes those who hold annual Navigo passes, Navigo Senior passes, Imagine R Student passes, Imagine R School passes, and Navigo Solidarité passes (for 75 percent and 50 percent holders).

Others might be entitled to a more significant reimbursement, as part of a separate “contractual punctuation campaign”, which is a second scheme intended to aid those who were primarily impacted by delays and issues with the RER B and D. This programme cover the whole period of 2022.

Specifically, those who held at least six months worth of Navigo passes during the period where the “five network routes” included on the RER lines B and D ran with a punctuality rate below 80 percent could get up to a full month’s reimbursement (€75.20) for their Navigo pass. 

These five networks include the Aulnay-sous-Bois to CDG portion of the RER B North line; the Aulnay to Mitry -Claye portion of the RER B North line; the Parc de Sceaux to Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse portion of the RER B South line; the Bourg-la-Reine to Robinson portion of the RER B South Line and the Goussainville to Survilliers-Fosses of the RER D.

Those impacted by issues with the lines B and D who held at least three months worth of passes (for the four final months of 2022) could be eligible for an additional reimbursement of half their Navigo pass.

How to request the reimbursement

Starting on March 14th, you will be able to log onto a dedicated platform to make your reimbursement request. The options will be separated the ‘general campaign’ and the ‘contractual punctuality campaign’ (aid for those primarily impacted by issues with the RER B and D throughout 2022).

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PARIS

Bon appetit: Paris’s Champs-Elysées to host giant picnic

Paris’s most famous street, the Champs-Elysées, is to host a giant open-air picnic on Sunday as the French capital’s iconic boulevard seeks to reinvent itself.

Bon appetit: Paris’s Champs-Elysées to host giant picnic

Nearly 273,000 people have applied to take part in the event which will see a 216-metre red-and-white chequered rug cover the picnic ground and feature free packed meals from organisers’ eight partner restaurants.

Around 4,000 people have been selected to participate in the ‘le grand pique-nique’, with each guest invited to bring up to six additional people and choose one of two sittings, at noon or 2pm.

The ‘world’s largest tablecloth’, made from 25 pieces of recycled fibre, will be assembled on site by 150 people, organisers said.

The aim of the event was to show that the Champs-Elysées, famous for its expensive boutiques and restaurants, was not only good for shopping, said Marc-Antoine Jamet, president of the organiser, the Champs-Elysées Committee.

“It’s a way of telling Parisians: ‘Come back to the Champs-Elysées’,” he said.

In 2023, the association transformed the avenue into an open-air mass dictation spellathon, pitting thousands of France’s brainiest bookworms against one another.

With 1,779 desks laid out on the boulevard, organisers had sought to break the world record for a dictation spelling competition.

A top tourist attraction, the avenue has been gradually abandoned by locals in recent years.

The historic UGC Normandie cinema, which opened in 1937, is set to close in June due to decline in business.

On Monday, the Committee was due to present a 1,800-page study of possible ways to reinvent the Champs-Elysees.

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