As well as buying a single one of the small cardboard Metro tickets, users can also save money by buying 10 or 20 tickets at a time – known as a carnet – which work out cheaper per ticket.

But since 2021 transport operator Île de France Mobilités has been gradually phasing these out, and from Thursday it is no longer possible to buy the packs of 10 cardboard tickets.

It is, however, still possible to buy single tickets in their paper version. 

It’s part of an overall plan to make the city’s public transport system largely paperless and moving people towards phone apps and top-up cards to buy their Metro, bus, RER and tram tickets.

Alternatives

It is still possible to buy paper tickets for single journeys – this costs €2.10 if you are within the city of Paris or the inner suburbs. Journeys to the greater Île-de-France region are more expensive, with a single ticket to Charles de Gaulle airport from central Paris costing €11.45. 

Users can still purchase virtual carnets – 10 or 20 tickets at a time at a reduced price – using the Navigo Easy pass, which costs €2 and can be topped up at ticket machines or counters and via smartphone.

Tickets can also be bought either singly or in a carnet using the phone apps Île-de-France Mobilités, Bonjour RATP and SNCF Assistant – a carnet of 10 tickets costs €16.90, or €1.69 per ticket. 

If you are a more frequent user of public transport in Paris but don’t want to commit to an unlimited monthly pass, there is the Navigo Liberté + pass, which debits you for your total journeys at the end of each month.

It is also possible to purchase single bus tickets for €2 via text message.

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1 in 10 tickets goes wasted

City authorities in Paris are pushing greener transport alternatives such as cycling, and have greatly expanded the city’s cycling infrastructure – pay-as-you go cards like the Navigo Liberté are intended for occasional public transport users, for example people who usually cycle to work but take the Metro if it rains. 

As well as environmental problems and littering, the cardboard tickets also frequently become demagnetised meaning that they cannot be used at automatic barriers.

Every year, nearly 5 million tickets are demagnetized because they are placed near keys or coins, according to RATP, and 10 percent of tickets from packs of ten are not used because they are lost, damaged or forgotten.

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