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Paris transport strike will close half city’s Metro lines and severely limit services

Half of Paris' Metro lines will be closed compeltely during Thursday's strike, while the rest of the city's public transport network will see very heavy disruption.

Published: 7 November 2022 17:24 CET
Updated: 9 November 2022 08:26 CET

Paris transport strike will close half city's Metro lines and severely limit services

Half the Paris Metro lines will be closed on Thursday. Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP

Thursday, November 10th, marks the third ‘inter-professional’ strike day in France but while the previous two saw minimal disruption, this one has won the backing of workers on Paris’ public transport network RATP.

The operator has warned that Metro and RER suburban trains services will be ‘very heavily disrupted’, while bus and tram services will be ‘disrupted’.

RATP on Wednesday produced a strike timetable detailing the disruption, but the overall advice remains “change your travel plans and work from home if possible”.

Metro lines 2, 3bis 5, 8, 10, 11 and 12 will be closed completely on Thursday.

Lines 3, 4, 6, 7, 7bis, 9 and 13 will operate only during rush hours – 7am to 9.30am and 4.30pm to 7.30pm – and will run limited services during these times.

Lines 1 and 14, which are automated, will run as normal but are likely to be extremely busy.

On the RER, line A will run 1 in 3 of its normal services and will stop at 9pm, while line B – which connects Paris to its two airports – will run normal hours but with only half or 1 in 3 of its normal services. The other RER lines are run by SNCF, which is not expecting any disruption.

On the buses some lines will be heavily disrupted while trams will run mostly as normal except for line 5 which will only have services between 5.30am and 10.30am, and 3.30pm and 8.30pm. Line 2 will run fewer services than normal.

#greve10novembre Ce jeudi, évitez le métro et le RER
➡️ https://t.co/2aNhbdJveh pic.twitter.com/zcIxpq0LGA

— Le Parisien | transports (@transportsidf) November 9, 2022

SNCF is not expecting major disruption on rail journeys across France.

The inter-professional strike days were called by the hardline CGT union in response to the rising cost of living. They have not attracted the widespread support of other unions, meaning disruption has until now been kept to a minimum.

Unions have staged strikes across several sectors in recent weeks seeking pay hikes or increased hiring as spiralling energy costs feed into widespread inflation.

Union leaders are also hoping to step up pressure on President Emmanuel Macron as he prepares to revive a controversial pensions overhaul that would push back the official retirement age to 64 or 65, from 62 currently.

A similar attempt sparked massive protests two years ago, before the government abandoned the overhaul amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

Former prime minister Jean Castex, who is set to take over as RATP chief in the coming weeks, will face questioning from lawmakers in the Senate and the lower-house National Assembly this week.

We will update this story with further information on Wednesday.

Member comments

Anonymous - 9 November 2022 at 17:50 CET

Can you please stop calling the CGT union “hardline” or hard left”. You’ve been doing it for weeks now. It’s just a normal union, as in every country in the world, defending its members. Your personal political opinions are unsuitable for an information site like this one.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Paris unveils sweeping transport price changes for 2025

The head of the Paris region and leader of Ile-de-France Mobilités, Valérie Pécresse, announced on Tuesday that there would be wide ranging changes to the prices for public transport tickets, taking effect from January 2nd, 2025.

The biggest change is introducing a single price for all journeys in the region – in contrast the current system where journeys into Paris from the outer suburbs are more expensive, in effect penalising commuters who live further out.

For example, under the previous system, taking the commuter train from Fontainebleau to Paris could cost up to €5, in contrast to the €2.15 ticket to get around inside Paris.

Pécresse explained to Le Parisien that the main goal is simplification and fairness.

“The aim is to take a ‘single Navigo pass’ to its logical conclusion. The principle that all Ile-de-France residents pay the same transport fair, whether they live in the suburbs or the city.

“[The change] will bring an end to the 50,000 different fares that have become unreadable and are sometimes unfair. It’s a real social project based on fairness and freedom,” Pécresse said.

Many of the capital’s lowest-paid workers live in the less expensive outer suburbs, and they have been effectively penalised by the current pricing structure.

However there are other changes coming down the line too.

Here are the changes;

Metro and RER

The Paris Metro system, as well as the commuter RER lines, will be combined onto one single ticket, costing €2.50 for any journey within the greater Paris region.

This means that a transport user could switch from the RER and onto the Metro with the same ticket, regardless of how far they have travelled or how many zones they have crossed.

This change will represent an increase of €0.35 (from the €2.15) from the 2024 price for single Metro tickets inside the city.

However, for people travelling to and from the Paris suburbs, the single ticket will likely save them a significant amount.

For example, a journey between Paris and Noisy-le-Grand (Zone 4) cost €4.15 under the previous system, but it will cost €2.50 under the new system.

The only exception to this is tickets to and from Paris’ airports (more on that below).

Bus and tram

A new ticket will be created for the bus and tram lines. This will cost be separate to the Metro and RER ticket, and it will cost €2 per journey.

However, those purchasing a bus ticket on-board (via SMS) will still pay a heightened price of €2.50.

The other change will be ‘long-distance’ bus journeys. Previously, if a journey took longer than one hour and thirty minutes and involved more than one bus, then the user would have had to pay for two separate tickets per bus ride. Moving forward, ‘long’ bus journeys will cost just one €2 ticket.

This change means that transport users will need to think about buying separate Metro/ RER and bus/tram tickets if their journey requires both methods of transport.

For example, if you take the RER and then take a bus, you would need two separate tickets, as Metro/RER tickets are only valid on those lines, and bus/tram tickets are only valid on those lines.

Liberté +

This pay-as-you-go card will be made significantly more attractive under the new system, but it is only available to Paris region residents.

You have to subscribe online and connect the account to your RIB, for which you will need a French bank account. You can also track your consumption online, and at the end of the month you pay the total amount that you travelled.

The changes for the Liberté + will include a lower price for Metro/RER journeys (€1.99) and a reduced rate for bus/tram journeys (€1.60).

If you take a journey that combines the Metro and the bus, for example, then you would only pay one price (€1.99) for the entire journey, rather than needing to purchase two separate single tickets.

The other change is that the Liberté + will extend to the rest of Ile-de-France – it was previously only available inside of Paris (Zone 1).

And starting in spring 2025, the Liberté + will be available to load directly onto an Android or iOS enabled smartphone.

Generally, the Liberté + will be a more advantageous option for local residents to pay reduced prices and as-they-go.

Packets of 10 tickets

The ‘carnets’, or 10-ticket books, will be phased out entirely starting in January 2025.

The paper version of these booklets was already phased out, but a reduced price for a bundle of 10 tickets will no longer be available in any form starting in January.

If you want to purchase a bundle of tickets at once, you can still do so – and you can still store them on a Navigo Easy pass – but you will have to pay full price (€2.50 each or €25 for 10).

Trips to the airport

Trips to and from Paris’ airports will be the only exception to the new €2.50 flat rate.

Previously, trips to the airport cost a varying amount based on whether you took the Roissy/Charles de Gaulle bus (€16.60), Roissy/Charles de Gaulle RER (€11.80), Orly bus (€11.50), or Orly Line 14 (€10.30).

Moving forward, only one flat price of €13 will be charged for any and all trips to the airport.

Daily pass

Daily Metro passes, popular amongst tourists, allow for unlimited travel. Previously, they were priced based on the zones the visitor selected – so if you selected a two-zone option (Zones 1-2; Zones 2-3; Zones 3-4, etc) then you would pay €8.65 for the day.

A three-zone option (Zones 1-3, Zones 2-4, Zones 3-5) cost €11.60. The four zone option (Zones 1-4, Zones 2-5) cost €14.35, and the full option (Zones 1-5) cost €20.60.

However, the zoning will be scrapped from January, and instead, single day passes will cover all five zones and cost a flat price of €12. This does not include airports, however, so a separate airport ticket would be required.

Visitor pass

As for the visitor pass – this previously allowed two options for unlimited daily travel in the Paris area – either including just Zones 1-3 for €13.95 (per day), or including all five zones (and airports) for €29.95 (per day).

The new version will cost €29.90 and it will include all five zones, plus airports.

What about monthly and yearly Navigo passes?

Pécresse explained to Le Parisien that these will not change, as the focus is primarily on occasional travellers.

“For Navigo subscribers, nothing is changing. We are working within the framework of the agreement signed with the state, so future increases of these passes will always be less than or equal to inflation plus one percent,” Pécresse said.

What will the general impact be?

This will depend on whether you are a resident of the city of Paris (Zone 1), the Paris suburbs, or if you are a visitor.

For residents of Paris and the inner suburbs travel with single tickets inside the city will get more expensive, but the Liberté + plan is meant to offset these increases.

Meanwhile, outer suburb residents will likely see a significant decrease in their spending.

On the other hand occasional Metro users will see an increase in price while tourists and visitors will also see an increase.

What about my old tickets?

Any old paper tickets or individual electronic tickets (perhaps stored on a Navigo Easy pass) will still be functional until December 31st, 2025.