The single national transport pass is finally on track! Patrice Vergriete, the French Minister for Transport, made the announcement on 23 May after chairing the first steering committee for this ambitious project a month ago, signing a memorandum of understanding with the Groupement des Autorités Responsables des Transports (GART) and the French Regions. Aimed at offering passengers a transport solution "from start to finish with a single ticket in France, this single ticket will be tested from the end of the year thanks to the participation of three regions: Normandy, Pays-de-la-Loire and Centre-Val-de-Loire. And on a clearly identified test route between Caen, Le Mans and Tours, thanks to the commitment of these three cities.
" These areas offer fertile ground for testing different user paths, validating technical proposals, and gradually improving and extending the service to users making inter-regional door-to-door journeys." explained the Ministry of Transport in a press release. " A single ticket valid on all networks, that's it a useful objective to facilitate access to public transport. The aim of this experiment is to improve the level of rail service in our regions." said Christelle Morançais, President of the Pays de la Loire Region.
The challenge will be to interconnect the various regional and local ticketing systems in order to simplify users' journeys and make them more fluid. At national level, France has 712 transport organising authorities (AOMs) and nearly 200 ticketing systems ! The aim of the government, local authorities and operators is to encourage passengers to use this new low-carbon transport option compared with the private car. The single ticket was one of the 149 proposals put forward in 2020 by the Citizens' Climate Convention to combat global warming.
Transport ministers heavily involved
A detailed analysis of the journeys made and feedback from customers should lead to the national roll-out expected by the government in 2025. Other major cities and regions are also moving in the same direction, such as Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, which is planning to introduce the single ticket for TER and coach services in a year's time too. Patrice Vergriete is well known for having been the first mayor in France, back in 2018, to make his public transport network free, in the Dunkerque urban community, which represents some 200,000 inhabitants. This measure has been a great success, with 75,000 daily users today and a 150% increase in bus ridership since it was introduced.
However, this single-ticket project was the brainchild of his predecessor, Clément Beaune, who, at the beginning of 2023, intended to draw inspiration from the offer developed in the Netherlands just as it relied on the German model for its Rail Pass. Reserved for the under-27s, it is due to go on sale in the next few days. For €49 a month this summer, young people will be able to travel unlimited on the French rail network for the first time, with the notable exception of the Inoui and Ouigo TGVs, and trains on the Ile-de-France network.
