Public transport in Paris

The public transport in Paris and the Ile-de-France consists of a dense network of bus , subway and tram -lines and a large-scale network of train -Strecken ( RER ) and suburban trains ( Transilien ). Operators of public transport is (public transport), the Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP), partly in connection with the national railway company Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer français (SNCF). The authority responsible for public transport in this region is the Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France (STIF). In 2014, local public transport in Île-de-France counted 4.3 billion passengers, resulting in an average of around 11.8 million passengers per day. By 2020, public transport journeys are expected to increase by 20% compared to 2014. In total, around 41 million journeys are made every day in the greater Paris area.

overview

The following modes of transport are operated in Paris:

Means of transport	operator	Share of traffic
Metro	RATP	48%
Public bus	RATP	34%
RER	RATP / SNCF	15%
Tramway	RATP / SNCF	2%
Orlyval	RATP	<1%
Funicular de Montmartre	RATP	<1%

In 2011, RATP vehicles covered over three billion kilometers.

Means of transport	operator	area	Passengers (in millions)	Lines	Route network length (in km)	Number of stations
Metro	RATP	Paris and nearby suburbs	1,541	16	220	303
RER	RATP	Paris and suburbs	449	5	117	65
	SNCF	Paris and suburbs	676		488	443
Transilien	SNCF	Paris and suburbs		8th	920
Tramway	RATP	Paris and suburbs	96	6th	74	134
	SNCF	Suburbs	14th	1	8th	11
bus	RATP	Paris	345	64	597	1.313
		Suburbs	643	257	2,685	3,402
	Optile	Suburbs	309	1,079	20,032	25,704
	Noctiles	Paris and suburbs	9	47	1,341	1,239

metro

Paris Metro sign

→ Main article : Métro Paris

→ Main article : Design of the Paris metro stations

→ Main article : List of stations of the Paris Métro

→ Main article : Ghost stations of the Métro Paris

Traffic within Paris is mainly handled by the subway. The Metro Paris after London (1863), Glasgow and Budapest (both 1896), the fourth-oldest subway in Europe. The first metro line was opened on July 19, 1900. The Paris subway network consists of 16 lines (14 full and two supplementary lines with the additional Latin name bis ) and is one of the largest networks in the world with a total length of 219.9 kilometers and 303 stations. The metro is used by around five million people every day and represents 20 percent of total Paris traffic. With the Grand Paris Express project , the network is also to be expanded to include the suburbs. Its length will almost double. In addition, numerous extensions to existing lines are planned.

line	route	opening	Last extension	Length (in km)	of which above ground	Stations	Passengers (per year)	operating system
	La Défense - Grande Arche ↔ Château de Vincennes	1900	1992	16.6	0.6	25th	207,000,000 (2010)	rubber tires
	Porte Dauphine ↔ Nation	1900	1903	12.3	2.2	25th	102,000,000 (2009)	conventional
	Pont de Levallois - Bécon ↔ Gallieni	1904	1971	11.7	0.0	25th	98,000,000 (2009)	conventional
	Gambetta ↔ Porte des Lilas	1921	1971	1.3	0.0	4th	already counted for line 3	conventional
	Porte de Clignancourt ↔ Mairie de Montrouge	1908	2013	12.1	0.0	27	172,000,000 (2009)	rubber tires
	Bobigny - Pablo Picasso ↔ Place d'Italie	1906	1985	14.6	2.5	22nd	101,000,000 (2009)	conventional
	Charles de Gaulle - Étoile ↔ Nation	1900	1942	13.6	6.1	28	104,000,000 (2009)	rubber tires
	La Courneuve - 8 May 1945 ↔ Villejuif - Louis Aragon / Mairie d'Ivry	1910	1987	22.4	0.0	38	129,000,000 (2009)	conventional
	Louis Blanc ↔ Pré Saint-Gervais	1911	1967	3.1	0.0	8th	already counted on line 7	conventional
	Balard ↔ Pointe du Lac	1913	2011	23.4	4.1	38	96,000,000 (2009)	conventional
	Pont de Sèvres ↔ Mairie de Montreuil	1922	1937	19.6	0.0	37	130,000,000 (2010)	conventional
	Boulogne - Pont de Saint-Cloud ↔ Gare d'Austerlitz	1913	1981	11.7	0.0	23	43,000,000 (2009)	conventional
	Châtelet ↔ Mairie des Lilas	1935	1937	6.3	0.0	13	47,000,000 (2009)	rubber tires
	Front Populaire ↔ Mairie d'Issy	1910	2012	15.3	0.0	29	86,000,000 (2013)	conventional
	Asnières - Gennevilliers - Les Courtilles / Saint-Denis - Université ↔ Châtillon - Montrouge	1911	2008	24.3	2.4	32	126,800,000 (2010)	conventional
	Saint-Lazare ↔ Olympiades	1998	2007	9.0	0.0	9	80,000,000 (2009)	rubber tires

RER and suburban railways

→ Main article : Réseau express régional d'Île-de-France

→ Main article : Transilien

In addition to the metro network, there is the Réseau Express Régional (RER), whose trains connect Paris with the suburbs ( banlieues ). The RER network includes lines A to E, which can take up to two minutes by train on the central sections of the route. The current RER has its origins in the suburban railways shut down by the French state railway company SNCF or its predecessors, one of which (today's southern section of the RER B ) was taken over by the Paris Métro in 1937.

line	Route	Length (in km)	Number of stations	Trains (per day)	Passengers (per day)
	Saint-Germain-en-Laye / Cergy-le-Haut / Poissy - Boissy-Saint-Léger / Marne-la-Vallée - Chessy	108	46	580	1,400,000
	Aéroport Charles-de-Gaulle 2 TGV / Mitry-Claye - Robinson / Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse	80	47	540	900,000
	Pontoise / Versailles-Château / Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines - Massy-Palaiseau / Dourdan / Saint-Martin-d'Étampes / Versailles-Chantiers	187	84	531	540,000
	Creil - Corbeil-Essonnes / Melun / Malesherbes	197	59	440	615,000
	Haussmann - Saint-Lazare - Chelles-Gournay / Tournan	56	22nd	430	372,000

The greater Paris area is served by the SNCF with the Transilien local transport system. This differs from the RER trains in that the Transilien lines do not cross under the city, but end in the large central train stations.

line	Route	Length (in km)	Number of stations
	Gare du Nord - Luzarches / Pontoise / Persan - Beaumont Pontoise - Creil	138	46
	Gare Saint-Lazare - Ermont - Eaubonne / Gisors / Mantes-la-Jolie - Vernon	256	52
	Gare du Nord - Crépy-en-Valois	61	10
	Gare Saint-Lazare - Cergy-le-Haut / Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche / Versailles-Rive-Droite Saint-Germain-en-Laye-Grande-Ceinture - Noisy-le-Roi	86	40
	Gare Montparnasse - Mantes-la-Jolie / Dreux / Rambouillet	117	35
	Gare de l'Est - Château-Thierry / La Ferté-Milon / Provins / Coulommiers Esbly - Crécy-la-Chapelle Coulommiers - La Ferté-Gaucher	252	40
	Gare de Lyon - Montereau / Montargis Melun - Montereau	164	24
	La Défense - La Verrière	31	10

Trams

→ Main article : Île-de-France tram

On November 21, 1853, the horse-drawn tram was introduced in Paris as the first in Europe. With the electrification of the track network in the streets, the upgrade to electric trams began on November 6, 1881 . The operation was stopped on August 14, 1938, the transport needs were met by motor buses. After a 54-year break, there has been a tram again in the suburbs since July 6, 1992. Today seven lines operate on a route network that is more than 80 kilometers long.

Since December 16, 2006, the newly built T3 tram has been running again in Paris itself. The T3 runs along the Boulevards des Maréchaux in two sections from the Seine bridge Pont du Garigliano in the southwest to the Porte de Vincennes in the east (as line 3a) from Paris and from there to Porte de la Chapelle (as line 3b) in the north of the city. Since the extension in December 2012, the route is a good 22 kilometers long and is mainly designed as grass track and is designed for 270,000 passengers per day. The line 4 is operated by the SNCF, all others by RATP.

line	Route	opening	Length (in km)	Number of stops
	Asnières - Gennevilliers - Les Courtilles ↔ Noisy-le-Sec	1992	17th	36
	Pont de Bezons ↔ Porte de Versailles	1997	17.9	24
	Pont du Garigliano ↔ Porte de Vincennes	2006	12.4	25th
	Porte de Vincennes ↔ Porte de la Chapelle	2012	9.9	18th
	Bondy ↔ Aulnay-sous-Bois	2006	7.9	11
	Marché de Saint-Denis ↔ Garges - Sarcelles	2013	6.6	16
	Châtillon - Montrouge ↔ Viroflay-Rive-Droite	2014	14th	21st
	Villejuif - Louis Aragon ↔ Athis-Mons - Porte de l'Essonne	2013	11.2	18th
	Saint-Denis - Porte de Paris ↔ Villetaneuse-Université / Épinay-sur-Seine	2014	8.5	17th

bus

→ Main article : List of Paris bus routes

→ Main article : Noctiles

A RATP Agora bus. Buses of this type were purchased in large numbers between 1996 and 2006.

Paris is also criss-crossed by a dense network of bus routes. The buses with three-digit numbers go to the suburbs, those with two-digit numbers only run within the city. Courses with a line number crossed out only serve a part of the route. Most buses run between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m., the most important lines longer until around 1:00 a.m. The Noctilien night buses run all night every day.

More than 9000 buses are used on 1435 lines with an annual mileage of over 300 million kilometers. The buses are used by around 3.5 million passengers every day, which is around 42 percent of all transports in Île-de-France's public transport.

As part of a 2013–2016 bus mobility plan , the range of bus routes is gradually being adapted to growing demand. B. by improving the routing, increasing the bus frequency or extending operating times. Since the start of the operation in 2013, the offer had already been improved to more than 400 lines by mid-2014. In the second half of 2014, a further 63 lines will benefit from improved services.

Vélib ' bike rental system in Paris

Other means of transport

Public bike rental

Since the summer of 2007 there has also been a nationwide network of bicycle rental stations called Vélib ' . The system now includes over 20,000 bicycles at 1202 stations in Paris and in some communities in the vicinity of the French capital. Until 2017 it was operated by JCDecaux . , then the provider Smovengo took over the operation. With the introduction of Vélib ', cycling plays a significant role in Paris city traffic for the first time.

Public car sharing

Under the name Autolib ' there was also a public car sharing offer with electric cars ( bluecars ) from 2011 to 2018 . The large-scale project, initiated by Mayor Bertrand Delanoë and operated by the Bolloré Group, was discontinued in mid-2018 due to poor profitability, steadily declining quality of service (poor condition of the vehicles) and a drastic drop in subscriber numbers; the project's losses at that time amounted to around 300 million euros.

Still being planned: Téléval cable car

Under the art name Téléval (convergence of Téléphérique and Val-de-Marne), a cable car is to be built as an extension of the existing Métrolinie 8 by around 2018 . The construction has now been approved by STIF . It will start at the Pointe du Lac metro station and head south. There will be 4 stops along the 4.5 km route. This means that the towns of Valenton , Limeil-Brévannes and Villeneuve-Saint-Georges are better connected to the capital. The cable car was awarded the contract over ground-based means of transport such as B. the tram, because in this case complex engineering structures (bridges or tunnels) would be required to cross or undercut several railway lines (including the Ligne de la grande ceinture de Paris ) and Route nationale 406 .

Véligo - park your own bike safely

The Véligo shelter in the Corbeil-Essonnes train station

Behind the name Véligo is a project with the aim of enabling users of public transport in Ile-de-France to park their bicycles in such a way that they cannot be stolen: At train stations and tram stops, fenced and covered areas are being built with spaces for 32 to 122 bicycles. The bike can be chained to a fixed bracket there. Access to the Véligo areas is only available to customers with a Navigo pass for season tickets and a subscription for a parking space.

In March 2013, 19 Véligo areas were available. 20,000 such bicycle parking spaces are to be built by 2020.

Tickets

Day tickets

Paris visit

Paris Visite is a Paris public transport ticket specially designed for tourists. It is available for a usage period of 1, 2, 3 or 5 days. The Paris public transport network is divided into concentric zones. Paris Visite is available for zones 1–3 or 1–6. Zones 1–3 cover at least the entire city center of Paris and the entire metro network. However, areas of the Île-de-France region outside the Paris metropolitan area are not covered by these three zones. As of July 1, 2007, the former outer zones 7 and 8 no longer existed; these were integrated into zone 6 in terms of price.

Within these zones it is valid on all means of transport of the RATP (Métro, RER, bus, tram (Tramway), Funiculaire de Montmartre, Montmartrobus, night bus ( Noctilien )) and local trains of the SNCF . With the ticket for zones 1–6, Versailles Palace , Disneyland and Charles de Gaulle airports in the north and Orly in the south of the city are also accessible. In addition, “Paris Visite” offers discounts in museums and shops.

Mobilis

The Mobilis day ticket does not include any discounts and is not valid for travel to the airports. Otherwise, it is also valid on one operating day in all means of transport (RER / Metro / Tram / Bus) in the selected zones. The "Noctilien" night buses and 5:30 am for the Métro begin operating at around 1:15 am (2:15 am on Saturday morning, Sunday morning and the early hours of public holidays) at the Métro and even 5 a.m. on night buses.

The price for the ticket in zones 1 and 2 is 7.00 euros (as of January 1, 2015).

Single tickets

The t + ticket

The “ticket t +” single ticket is valid for one journey including any number of changes between the metro lines (entire network regardless of the zone) or RER lines in the urban area (“intra muros”) of Paris. Alternatively, it can also be used in the bus and tram network. Here it is 90 minutes including any number of transfers, but without return trips, round trips or breaks. A different rule applies on the night bus routes (Noctilien); depending on the destination, several t + must be validated.

There are - with a few exceptions - no zone or line restrictions, its use extends to bus and tram lines of the RATP, SNCF and Optile in the entire region of Île-de-France. Switching from bus or tram to the metro / RER network is not permitted. Likewise, no railway lines (Metro, RER, Transilien or other) outside the Paris metropolitan area may be used. A "ticket t +" bought on the bus does not entitle you to change trains (printed: "sans correspodances"). Breaks in the journey are generally not permitted. When changing, the "ticket t +" must be validated again directly at the entrance (tram / bus) or at the access barriers (RER / metro).

The t + ticket has been in use since 2007 and replaces the t ticket , which has existed since 2003.

It is available individually for 1.80 euros or as 10 individual tickets for 14.10 euros (as of April 28, 2016).

Airports

Separate tickets must be purchased for individual trips to Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports . These can be bought at any ticket counter or at the ticket machines .
For example, a ticket from the city of Paris to Charles de Gaulle Airport costs 9.25 euros (children 6.50 euros; as of December 12, 2012). For a trip from Gare de l'Est with the night bus line (Noctilien) N144 to Orly airport, 3 t + can be validated (4.23 euros; as of April 28, 2016).

Ticket machines

There are different generations of ticket machines at the RATP stations . You can also top up your Navigo pass at almost all machines . This transponder card serves as a carrier for electronic weekly or monthly cards.

In addition to French, most ticket machines also have English and Spanish, and some even have German. You can pay with coins at almost all RATP ticket machines, only very few machines also accept banknotes. In general, you will find one, a maximum of two, machines that accept banknotes - where there is no longer any ticket sales at the counter (redesigned to become an information counter).

Although the international credit card logos are affixed to the machines , payment with foreign credit cards is not possible on all devices. Even newer foreign credit cards that are already equipped with the EMV chip are sometimes not accepted. Only PIN-activated credit cards are accepted at all ticket machines.

In the case of small amounts, cards with an EMV chip in which the PIN authorization is not activated, the authorization is sometimes generally waived. Accordingly, neither a PIN nor a signature is required, but the purchase is still processed and only a confirmation message is briefly displayed on the machine screen.

Payment with a Maestro card is no problem after entering the PIN . In any case, the chance of ATMs that accept banknotes is higher, as these - albeit difficult to recognize from the outside - belong to a newer generation.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Le trafic annuel , at www.stif.org
2. ↑ ^{a b} L'Île-de-France réinventée. Source région pour 2030? Le Mook autrement, 2014, ISBN 978-2-746-73982-6 . P. 77.
3. ↑ REPORT D'ACTIVITÉ. (pdf; 6.8 MB) In: ratp.fr. 2011, p. 58 , archived from the original on November 11, 2012 ; Retrieved December 14, 2012 (French). 
4. ↑ Julien Demade, Les embarras de Paris, ou l'illusion techniciste de la politique parisienne des déplacements , Paris, L'Harmattan, p. 13.
5. ↑ STIF press release of July 2, 2014 (French) accessed on August 24, 2014 ( Memento of September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ Vélib 'peine à trouver un second souffle , in Le Figaro, March 25, 2010
7. ↑ Paris pulls the plug on the Autolib 'car sharing project. In: manager-magazin.de . June 22, 2018, accessed April 14, 2019 . 
8. ↑ Urbanews from October 2013 (French) - including excerpt from city map - accessed on April 25, 2014
9. ↑ STIF brochure from March 2013 (French) accessed on August 24, 2014 ( Memento from September 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ Price of the Mobilis Day Ticket
11. ↑ Le ticket t + à l'unité et en carnet ( Memento of March 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive )