Valérie Pécresse has made a place for herself in the news. Absorbed by the exchange of arms between Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, and the two Macronist ministers, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Clément Beaune, respectively in charge of sports and transport, we would almost have forgotten that it is Île-de- France Mobilités (IDFM) which manages public transport in the region.
This Monday, its president took charge of refreshing our memory with the announcement of specific pricing for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and the creation of a Paris 2024 pass “which will allow visitors to travel throughout the ‘Ile-de-France’ and whose amounts will be almost double compared to the usual pricing.
Parisians normally spared
Four euros a ticket, 16 euros a day, and 70 euros a week, some users had to cough when discovering the cost of transport during the Olympics. Now will not be the time to go off track. “It’s the right price,” believes Valérie Pécresse, for whom there is “no question of Ile-de-France residents paying” the additional costs generated by the Olympic Games, which she estimates at 200 million euros (logistics, infrastructure , greater frequency of passage and additional staff).
Because the regional president wanted to reassure her constituents: if these prices will be exclusive on the network, the annual and monthly Navigo Passes will not be affected (as will the Liberté +, Imagine’R and Senior Passes). If IDFM can boast of having 5 million subscribers to its transport network, this means that there remains a large part of it which is not (of the more than 7 million remaining, we can bet that a part is not does not or very rarely use transport).
Will they also be condemned to ruin? No response IDFM, contacted by 20 minuteswhich has foreseen this scenario: others will be able to anticipate by obtaining transport tickets before the increase period.
Tourists, take out your tickets…
It will therefore be up to tourists to pay the high price, especially holders of tickets to attend the Olympic games since these passes are made to allow them to enjoy the events and stroll between the different sites and activities that the City of Paris and the region have to offer. will offer them during the great sports festival. A way of shifting the weight of these investments to stakeholders other than everyday users.
Quite a turnaround since until the end of 2022, the initial project of the Paris 2024 Committee, organizer of the Games, was to offer free transport to all ticket holders. A decision canceled as explained this Tuesday by Michael Aloisio, deputy general director of Paris 2024: “It would have cost 45 million euros. It is a choice of financial balance, of optimization.
The event must be done without leaving any burdens behind. » Especially since this economic line “does not encourage a change in behavior”. To summarize, even if we charge tourists, they take transport, so why deprive yourself. They therefore go from nothing to double.
…Unless you also anticipate
Well, double, not quite since IDFM does not want to strangle visitors who have already had to bleed themselves to buy tickets for the Olympics, book a hotel or Airbnb at a special rate and transport. “The daily rate will be lower than the usual rate, 16 euros compared to 20.60 euros from 2024. With a decreasing price of one euro per day,” explains an IDFM executive. But with a weekly rate of 70 euros in the end, compared to 30 euros normally.
Above all, according to IDFM, this measure is intended to encourage tourists, too, to anticipate their transport by booking online in advance to “avoid creating endless queues in front of distributors and traffic jams in front of ticket counters and turnstiles”. Good news for everyday users and also for tourists who will pay less.
To ensure this, Paris 2024 even ensures that major means of communication will be deployed to inform ticket holders of the means available to them to anticipate their purchases of transport tickets. Everyone wins.
But then who will pay?
But if Ile-de-France residents don’t pay more, and neither do tourists… who will pay the additional cost of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games? Officials or accredited? No, since for them, free service has been maintained.
It is the great confusion which worries several elected officials, first and foremost Stéphane Troussel, president of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, a department oh so concerned by the Games who learned the news in the press. “I am stunned by this measure. However, there are discussion frameworks for this, the IDFM board of directors, the mobility committee… We were not informed. »
Elected officials demand guarantees
In addition to his surprise, the elected official fears for his population: “I am asking for guarantees for the inhabitants of Seine-Saint-Denis, and more broadly of the region, there is no question that this measure will have an impact on their power purchase. »
“The father who wants to take his children to Parc Astérix, and not to the Olympic Games, how much will he pay? What about the student who has no money and finds a job in the middle of the summer? Not all residents have the financial flexibility to take out a monthly or annual pass, but not always to anticipate the purchase of transport tickets either. »
Same incomprehension for David Belliard, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of transport and member of the IDFM board of directors: “We want to charge 70 euros per week to people who come from the regions and already spend a lot? The whole message is there: we are transforming transport into a luxury product. We were told hand on heart that these games would be a great popular event, but they will only be the games of the “Happy few” (privileged few in French). »