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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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COST OF LIVING

What is considered a good salary in Paris?

The higher-paying jobs are heavily concentrated in the French capital, but set against that is the high cost of living - especially the cost of renting or buying a home. So what is considered a 'high-earner' in Paris?

What is considered a good salary in Paris?

Centrist Renaissance candidate Sylvain Maillard, running for re-election in France’s snap parliamentary elections, was trying to highlight the high cost of living in the capital in a debate on RMC Radio 

“You have extremely expensive rents [in Paris], between €1,500 and €1,700, and then there are all the charges and taxes to pay,” he said.

But what most people seized on was his comment that anyone earning €4,000 a month after tax would not be considered rich in Paris – he predictably was accused of being out of touch with French people’s lives.

There’s no doubt that €4,000 a month is good salary that most people would be happy with – but how much do you need to earn to be considered ‘rich’ in Paris?

National averages

Earlier this year, the independent Observatoire des Inégalités calculated poverty and wealth levels in France.

READ ALSO How much money do you need to be considered rich in France?

According to its calculations, to be considered ‘rich’ in France, a single person with no dependants needs to earn more than €3,860 per month, after taxes and social charges. Around eight percent of single workers have this sum deposited into their bank balance every month, it said.

A total of 23 percent of workers take home €3,000 or more every month, while the top 10 percent clear €4,170. 

To be in the top one percent of earners in France in 2024, one person must bring in at least €10,000 per month. After taxes and social charges.

The median income – the median is the ‘middle value’ of a range of totals – of tax households in mainland France is €1,923 per month after taxes and social charges, according to INSEE 2021 data, which means that a ‘rich’ person earns about twice as much as a person on the median income, according to the Observatoire.

Paris situation

About 75 percent of people living in Paris earn less than €4,458 per month, according to Insee data – so according to those calculations, 25 percent of Parisians earn the equivalent of the top 10 percent in France. 

But that city-wide average still hides a wide degree of variation. In the sixth arrondissement, the median income is €4,358 per month, after tax. In the seventh, it’s €4,255.  Further out, those bringing home €4,600 a month in the 19th and 20th arrondissements are among the top 10 percent in wealth terms.

But still, the median income in Paris is €2,639, significantly higher than the €1,923 France-wide median.

That would mean – using the Observatoire des Inégalités’ starting point for wealth – that a Paris resident, living on their own, would have to bring home €5,278 per month to be considered ‘rich’. 

France is a heavily centralised country, with many of the highest-paying industries concentrated within the capital, meaning there is much more opportunity to secure a high-wage job if you live in Paris.

Cost of living

Even these figures should all be taken with a pinch of salt because of the relatively high cost of living in the capital, compared to elsewhere in France. Paris is objectively an expensive place to call home.

In 2023, France Stratégie published a report on the disposable income of French households, after housing, food and transport costs were deducted. It found that, on average, people living in the Paris region had more left to spend, due to higher incomes and despite the fact that housing costs more.

It’s the income paradox in action. A person with a take-home salary of €4,000 per month has more money to spend if they live and work outside Paris. But they’re much more likely to earn that much if they live and work in Paris, where it’s not as valuable. 

Someone who earns a ‘rich-level’ salary in Paris might not appear rich – because they live in an expensive area, and a surrounded by very wealthy people in property that’s out of reach all-but the fattest of wallets. But they’re still earning more than twice the median income in France.

And that’s what Sylvain Maillard was getting at, clumsily as he may have expressed it.

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