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The key post-Olympics Paris transport changes you need to know

The end of the Paris Paralympics will signal transport changes in the capital city, from Metro ticket prices to road restrictions lifted and possible drop in the ring road speed limit. Here’s what’s changing for travel in the French capital this autumn.

Published: 3 September 2024 15:06 CEST
Updated: 8 September 2024 11:31 CEST
A metro train on the Bir-Hakeim Bridge in Paris
A metro train on the Bir-Hakeim Bridge in Paris. (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP)

With Paris gradually going back to normal after hosting the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, there are some travel changes in store for the autumn.

For those interested in travel changes on the national level – including trains, planes and roads – you can find more information here.

As for Paris, here is what to expect;

Metro prices – The price of Paris Metro tickets return to their usual amounts from Monday, September 9th, the day after the closing ceremony of the Paralympics – after almost doubling in price during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

During the Games, single tickets (which are used on Metros, buses, RER trains and/or trams) went up to €4, in contrast to the €2.15, while a carnet – or bundle of 10 tickets, cost €32, compared to usual €17.30. 

READ ALSO Price of Paris Metro ticket to be cut after Paralympics

Metro stations – Two Metro stations remain closed because of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Champs-Elysées-Clémenceau station (lines 1 and 13) will reopen fully on September 9th.

Line 12 of the Concorde station will reopen completely from September 21st – lines 1 and 8 have already re-opened.

Metro Line 14 – RATP announced that the Purple Line will close on the following Sundays: September 15th, 29th, October 13th, November 17th and 24th; while it will also close every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evening from September 9th through to December 19th (except for Tuesday, October 15th, and Monday, November 11th) for essential works. Gustave Roussy station will open in December.

“Other interruptions are expected from January 2025,” RATP announced.

READ MORE: Trains, planes and roads: The big autumn travel changes in France

Metro Line 4 – The line will be closed on the morning of Sunday, September 29th to finalise the automation of the line.

Road restrictions lifted – Lane restrictions on certain routes in and around Paris for the Olympic and Paralympic Games end on September 11th – good news for commuters heading back to work following the summer holidays. The Olympic lanes will eventually be turned into carpool and public transport lanes.

Speed limits on these routes, which were reduced along certain stretches for the duration of the lane restrictions, will return to normal.

Roads reopen – Major roads in the capital that have been closed to traffic during the Olympic and Paralympic Games will reopen gradually in September, with most opening fully by September 11th. Avenue du Maréchal Gallieni, however, will remain closed until September 25th, to allow the Games venue there to be dismantled. 

Tram stations – Porte d’Issy (T2)  and Porte de Versailles (T2 and T3a) reopen to passengers on September 7th, while Colette Besson (3b) reopens on September 8th.

What could change

Flying taxis – The Olympic flying taxis plan failed to materialise in the end, but the company behind the project hopes to have a required European aviation safety certificates ‘in the autumn’ – and intends to “have a paying passenger before the end of the year,” according to an ADP spokesperson, talking to Europe1.

READ ALSO Paris ‘flying taxi’ test flights scrapped during Olympics

Speed limits – Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo announced plans to cut the speed limit on the city’s ring road, in an effort to meet climate goals. Under her plan, the speed limit would go down to 50km/h in October, dropping from the current 70km/h. This has so far been opposed by regional authorities.

What has already changed

Parking – The cost of parking an SUV in Paris tripled from September 1st, following a citizens’ referendum. In the first to the 11th arrondissements, the cost has risen from €6 to €18, while in the 12th to the 20th it increased from €4 to €12.

RER – Since the start of the school year on Monday, trains on the RER A in Ile-de-France – the busiest local rail line in Europe, which transports some 1.4 million passengers per day – received more carriages to ease passenger overcrowding. 

Member comments

  1. Some SUVs are owned by wheelchair users, who need the larger dimensions to permit them to get in and out of the vehicle and to drive it.
    I hope that they are exempt from these parking charges.

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PARIS

Paris to bring 50km/h speed limit to congested ring road

Drivers on Paris' vital, congested ring road will be limited to speeds of 50 kilometres per hour from October, the French capital's mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Monday, triggering outrage among opponents.

Published: 9 September 2024 12:57 CEST
Paris to bring 50km/h speed limit to congested ring road

As well as raising hackles among drivers and conservatives, the Socialist mayor also faces an uphill battle for approval from the national government and police.

That showdown is in suspense for now, as freshly-installed Prime Minister Michel Barnier selects his ministers.

Crucial for road travel throughout the wider Ile-de-France region, Paris’s Boulevard Peripherique — known familiarly as the ‘Periph’ — is under the authority of the capital’s city hall.

READ MORE: Why the Paris périphérique is more than just a ringroad

“The 50 kph (limit) is my decision. It will happen on October 1st. We’ve been working on it for 18 years, this isn’t a new topic,” Hidalgo told broadcaster RTL.

A lower speed limit has been on the cards since January, when city hall said it would come in after the July-September Olympic and Paralympic Games that ended Sunday.

Hidalgo has also argued the reduction in the speed limit – which would decrease pollution – would also help to achieve climate goals and better public health.

Who can actually change the speed limit?

As a result of a decentralisation law passed in 2017, French law has allowed for the town hall to have power over the speed limit on its ring road, attorney Rémy Josseaume explained to BFMTV.

This means that the mayor of Paris does have the authority to pass a decree that changes the speed limit of the péripherique.

That said, there have been disagreements on this, and Josseaume noted that it would be possible for the measure to be challenged in court.

READ MORE: The key post-Olympics Paris transport changes you need to know

The transport ministry has insisted that only the government can officially change the speed limit by issuing a decree, as the city’s power does not extend to the nationwide rules of the road.

In November 2023, when the plans were initially being discussed, then-transport minister Clément Beaune promised he would not validate Hidalgo’s speed limit measure.

Meanwhile, Paris’s government-appointed police chief Laurent Nunez has also said he has a role to play. Nunez would need to organise the enforcement of the new limit, via speed cameras.

Hidalgo’s plans were decided “unilaterally” and “do not respect any of the recommendations” of a past report on the Peripherique, Conservative Republicans on the Paris city council wrote on X Monday.

Valérie Pécresse, former Les Républicains presidential candidate and the head of the Ile-de-France region called the plans to bring the speed limit down a ‘denial of democracy’, citing a survey that had found 90 percent of participants opposed to the change.

Pécresse also expressed concerns that the change would lead to an increase in traffic and pollution on other roads in the capital region.

The mayor’s Green party deputy David Belliard said in January that the lower speed limit was “in the common interest”.

A previous reduction, from 80 to 70 kph, had reduced noise pollution for residents living near the road as well as accidents, he said, citing figures from environment agency Ademe.

“Lowering the maximum speed means limiting stop-start driving (and) acceleration and deceleration effects, which makes traffic move more smoothly,” Belliard said.

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