Summer 2024: Paris increases public transport prices for the Olympics

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Paris metro station: additional costs of 200 million euros

Photo: TERESA SUAREZ / EPA

Paris is asking visitors to the Olympics in the summer of 2024 to pay heavily. In order to finance the additional costs of public transport during the Games, the Ile-de-France Mobilites (IDFM) announced that it would almost double the prices of individual tickets from 20 July to 8 September. In addition, an Olympic offer will be introduced, said the IDFM president and president of the regional council of the Ile-de-France region, Valerie Pecresse.

She "refuses" that the additional costs, which she estimates at 200 million euros, "will be paid by the inhabitants of the region," Pecresse wrote on X. The prices for a single ticket would therefore be raised from 2.10 euros to 4 euros for the duration of the Olympic Games, she explained in an attached video.

The "carnet", which includes ten tickets at a reduced total price, will cost 32 euros (instead of 16.90 euros), and a new day ticket specially aimed at visitors to the games will be available for 16 euros.

According to Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the metro may not be able to cope with the expected rush everywhere. "In fact, there will be places where transport will not be ready because there will not be the number of trains and the frequency," she told broadcaster TMC last week. "We are already in a difficult situation in everyday traffic and do not manage to create the necessary level of punctuality and comfort for Parisians," said the socialist local politician.

However, the mayor's concerns were contradicted last Thursday by Valérie Pécresse, whose main responsibility is local transport. The transport company RATP and the railway company SNCF had been preparing for the Olympic Games for months and would manage them. Like Transport Minister Clément Beaune, the conservative politician criticised the fact that the mayor had been absent from joint working sessions, but was now commenting on the state of affairs on television. The Olympics are scheduled from July 26 to August 11, 2024.

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