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How transport in Paris will change in 2022

From flying taxis (maybe) to the RER Vélo, here's how transport will change in the French capital in 2022.

Published: 4 January 2022 11:51 CET
A VoloCopter prototype flies through the sky.
A VoloCopter prototype flies through the sky. The Parisian suburb of Pontoise will begin a trial of flying taxis in 2022. (Photo by Anthony WALLACE / AFP)

January 

Line 4 extended to Bagneux 

Line 4 of the Paris Metro will stretch 1.8km further south with two new stations, terminating in Bagneux in the southern suburbs. The Barbara (between Montrouge and Bagneux) and Bagneux stations will open on January 13th. As a result of this extension, 37,000 extra people are expected to use the Metro each day. Trains running on this line will be progressively automated from the summer. 

February 

Navigo users to be reimbursed for late trains

SNCF and RATP have said they will begin reimbursing Navigo pass holders for repeatedly late RER A and RER B trains. If less than 80 percent of rail services are on time over a period of several months, users will receive compensation for anywhere between half a month of subscription fees to one and a half months of conscription fees. Those who frequently use the RER B are most likely to benefit from compensation. Reimbursement will not be automatic as in 2021 – rail users will have to apply via a specially created website.

March 

Phase-out of paper Metro tickets 

Many Metro stations have already begun phasing out the old 10-pack metro tickets carnets. In March, almost all stations will have scrapped this purchase option altogether in an effort to push people towards purchasing rechargeable Navigo Easy cards or use the IDF Mobilities app instead. Cardboard tickets won’t disappear completely – it will still be possible to buy single tickets.

Flying taxi trial in Pontoise 

RATP, Aéroports de Paris and a company called Volocopter are striving to launch a flying taxi service, although we’re a long way off hailing a flying cab just yet. Prototypes are set to be trialled during the Spring in Pontoise, to the northwest of Paris. The vehicles are a sort of hybrid between drone and helicopter and will be capable of carrying up to four passengers at once. If the trials are successful, the company says that the aim is to have the service fully operational by 2024 – journeys would cost in the region of €100.  

April 

Price limits for Ile-de-France public transport 

The cost of most journeys on public transport in Ile-de-France will be limited to €5, or €4 per journey for people buying a carnet.

The move will be subsidised by regional authorities to the tune of some €60 million per year. It was a campaign promise of Valérie Pécresse, president of the Ile-de-France Regional Council and now presidential candidate. 

May 

Line 12 extended to Mairie-d’Aubervilliers

Line 12 of the Paris Metro will be extended northward, with two new stations – Aimé-Césaire and Mairie-d’Aubervilliers – opening in May. Residents of the northern suburbs have been waiting for this for nearly 20 years, but various problems, most recently including the Covid pandemic, delayed the project significantly. 

June 

Cycle lane network expands 

City authorities in Paris have promised to protect 60km of cycle lanes known as coronapistes, which were initially meant to be temporary solutions to reduce the saturation of public transport during the pandemic. In the Summer, this network will be expanded eastwards towards Place de la Bastille. The city has promised to construct a 650km network of cycle lanes by 2025. 

July 

New tramway in Yvelines 

After 5 years of construction, the T-13 tramway will finally open up in Yvelines, connecting Saint-Cyr-l’École in the south to Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the north. The line will link through RER C and RER A without users having to travel through Paris. Some 21,000 daily passengers are expected to use the service every day. 

Polluting vehicles banned from Paris 

Diesel cars registered before 2011 and petrol cars registered before 2006 will no longer be able to enter Paris from July 1st. All the land inside the A86 (the ring road surrounding the city) will be protected as a low emissions zone. Of the 5.4 million cars in the Paris region, about a quarter will no longer to be able to enter the city. 

August 

Works begin in Saint-Michel-Notre-Dame RER station 

At least four months of repair and maintenance work will begin on August 23rd in the RER C station, Saint-Michel-Notre-Dame, meaning that this stop will be temporarily out of service. The total cost of the work is estimated at €32 million. The Saint-Michel stop of the RER B and Line 4 will however remain operational. 

September 

Parking fees for motorbikes

From September 1st, parking will no longer be free for motorised two-wheeled vehicles on Paris. Drivers will have to pay €2-3 per hour to park their motorbikes/motorcycles, for a maximum of six hours at a time. City authorities have promised to put in place a monthly pass for non-resident bikers, which will allow them to park at cheaper rates at designated parking spots.  

End of the year 

City authorities are discussing the creation of a limited traffic zone in the centre of Paris, promising to put one in place in the second half of 2022. The aim is to reduce traffic in the four central arrondissements but it is unclear who will have the right to continue driving there. It looks likely that residents, taxis and business owners will be able to continue using these roads but that visitors and private chauffeurs will not. 

Member comments

  1. Hi Emma, I live in the UK but visit Paris regularly, and I’ve been using carnets of 10 metro tickets for 45 years 🙂

    I’ve just downloaded the IDF mobilites app. Do I need to buy / get a physical Navigo pass, which I then top up with Apple Pay, a bit like a London Oyster card? Or do I just open the app on my phone at the barrier? Thanks as ever for your really useful information (and words of the day!) Andrew

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TRAVEL NEWS

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
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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