Increased fares by 85%

The metro was going to be free for the Olympics. Instead, Paris just increased fares by 85%.

It was 'out of the question' anyone pay for increased trains other than tourists

By Grant Marek

In 2019, the head of the Paris Olympics organizing committee, Tony Estanguet, told French newspaper Le Parisien that a ticket to an Olympic event would give you free access to public transportation.

Instead, on Saturday, the cost of a single metro ride in Paris went up by 85% — a 4-euro-per-trip price tag that will remain for nearly a month after the 2024 Olympic Games are over. Bus rides in Paris, meanwhile, doubled to a whopping 5 euros, or about $5.44, per trip.

The price hike was announced in November by Valerie Pecresse, the president of the Ile-de-France regional authority (which oversees the Paris-area public transit network). Pecresse said at the time that it was “out of the question that people living in the Paris region should pay for the extra cost” of adding additional trains for the Games, which are expected to draw more than 10 million visitors.

“The ticket has been fixed at 4 euros precisely so nobody buys one,” she said in March, saying locals should instead buy multi-trip commuter passes in advance, which cost more overall but have a lower per-trip price. A typical Paris commuter pass is 30.75 euros per week, but the Olympics price hike makes that same pass 70 euros per week.

Pecresse’s plan received almost immediate pushback, not just from locals, but from Paris City Hall itself, which asked her to reverse the price hike. The local government pointed to the 5,000 Paris 2024 volunteers being one of the most likely groups affected, adding the increase was “an additional blow to Parisians and Franciliens” financially. It was also side-eyed in a column in French newspaper Le Monde, and called out more directly in the Guardian by the transit network’s union boss, Sami Kennouzi: “For us this ticket price increase doesn’t correspond to our idea of a public service and for such a global event it comes across as a bit of a racket for tourists and [local] passengers.”

Complicating matters this week, Paris’ pre-Opening Ceremony blockade of security checkpoints along the River Seine restricted access for Parisians and tourists alike unless they had a pre-approved QR code that justified the need for travel within the perimeter. One of the few ways to avoid it? Taking the metro underneath it.

Pecresse said the price increase would help recoup the 200 million euro bill that comes with increasing metro and commuter rail trip frequency by 15%.

The fare hike is slated to remain in effect from July 20 to Sept. 8.