DIGITAL SHIFT: T+ carnets are being phased out with all paper tickets set to be removed from sale by 2025
Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) has begun phasing out the sale of physical tickets for journeys on the Paris Metro as the first step towards accepting contactless or mobile fare payments only.
The transit authority has already stopped selling physical T+ ticket booklets for 10 journeys — known as carnets — at a number of stations on the Paris Metro network and says that they will be phased out completely “during 2023”, followed by single journey tickets in either 2024 or 2025.
It is also reducing the number of turnstiles that accept physical tickets and has already seen a decrease in the use of physical tickets from more than two-thirds in 2021 to “well under half now”, according to media reports.
“The dematerialisation of your transport tickets continues, for even freer and more flexible mobility,” IDFM says.
“During 2023, T+ ticket booklets will gradually no longer be available for sale. You may have noticed that they are no longer offered at several stations.”
IDFM also says that it is switching to a wholly digital system to “make life easier for Île-de-France residents” by offering “the possibility of recharging anywhere and at any time”, “faster passage through validators” and “a range of passes and subscriptions better suited to the different needs and lifestyles of travellers” through its Navigo transit card service.
A wholly digital system will also “preserve the environment” by preventing “millions of tickets from continuing to be thrown on the ground” when “one ticket takes between one and two years to degrade”, IDFM says.
The transit authority began rolling out support for contactless ticketing on Android NFC phones in 2019 and announced plans to add support for NFC transit ticketing on Apple devices in February.
Paris Metro begins phasing out physical tickets as it moves towards completely contactless fare payments was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.