Paris to double price of Metro tickets during Olympics to cash in on fans
Paris Metro tickets will double in price for fans during next year’s Paris Olympics.
Valerie Pecresse, the region’s president, insisted the temporary price hike was both “fair” and necessary because of the extreme demand expected to be placed on the city’s transport network.
The cost of a single Metro ticket will rise from €2.10 to €4 although residents with monthly or annual passes will be shielded from the increase.
The inflated ticket prices are being rolled out to help offset the cost of extra transport provision in Paris, which will host the Games from July 26 to August 11 2024, followed by the Paralympics from August 28 to September 8.
The surge in prices marks a wholly different approach to the one taken during the 2012 London Olympics, which were known as the first “public transport Games”.
Ticket holders enjoyed a free ‘Games Travelcard’ which was valid for use on public transport in London zones 1-9 on the day of the event.
A campaign urging the public to work from home more and change their travel routines was rolled out by Transport for London was also rolled out in the months leading up to the Games.
The announcement comes a week after Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, hit out at Pecresse, saying the French capital’s transport system would not be ready for the world’s biggest sporting event.
“During the Olympics and the Paralympics, the Ile de France region will dramatically increase its transport offer. It is out of question that the residents support that cost,” Pecresse said on social media on Tuesday.
“We’re going to create a new pass, the Paris 2024 pass, that will allow visitors to travel through the whole Ile de France region. It will cost €16 a day, and up to €70 a week. It is the fair price.” A monthly Paris Metro pass normally costs €84.10.
Clement Beaune, the French transport minister, backed Pecresse on Tuesday, saying Paris would be “ready” to host the world’s biggest sporting event and insisted it was crucial “there are no changes for the Parisians during the Games.”
“The prices will go up so that the Olympics are 100 per cent accessible by public transport,” she told reporters at a test ride of the future line 15 of the Metro. “Public services have a cost and pretending otherwise is a lie. If it’s not the visitors who pay, it’s going to be the taxpayer.”
