Does anyone on the group have any idea if the Paris (RATP?) has anything
like Oyster prepay? Thanks.
--
Clive

The "Orange Card" is a Paris transportation pass, valid for either one
week or one month for the zones of coverage you can choose.

Carte Orange, meant mostly for citizens of Paris, is generally a much
better value than the transportation pass called the Paris Visite,
meant for tourists.

Carte Orange quick facts

* You cannot buy one outside of Paris. You will need to purchase on
from an RAPT agent at any Metro or RER station in Paris.

* Despite what you will might hear about the pass being available
only to Parisians, anyone can buy a Carte Orange.

* The weekly pass (called a coupon hebdomadaire) is valid Monday to
Sunday only. Be sure you can communicate the dates that you want, or
that you'd like a Carte Orange for the next week starting Monday.
Otherwise you may be sold a pass that is only valid for the rest of the
week.

Coupon hebdomadaire : Validité du lundi au dimanche uniquement

Il peut être acheté jusqu'au mercredi pour la semaine en cours, et à
partir du vendredi pour la semaine suivante (pas de vente de coupon
hebdomadaire le jeudi).

Trans:-

You can buy it up to Wednesday for use in the current week, and from
Friday for use the next week. (No weekly passes sold on Thursdays)

* The monthly pass (called a coupon mensuel) is valid for the
calender month.

* You will need to specify the zones you wish to travel in. Zones
one and two are central Paris, and quite likely the only two you'll be
interested in for a pass. If you need to go outside those zones only
once (to Versailles, for example) a separate ticket will be cheaper
than extending you pass to those zones. (See the link to the zone map
(pdf) below.

* You will need a small, passport style photo to attach to the pass
(about 1 1/8" in height). You can buy one at the metro station.

* The Carte Orange passes are valid for unlimited rides on the RATP
system.

* Prices for a weekly zone 1-2 weekly Carte Orange in 2004 was
€14.50.

Clive wrote:
Does anyone on the group have any idea if the Paris (RATP?) has
anything like Oyster prepay? Thanks.

Something like Oyster, yes, but not pre-pay yet. Navigo is a similar
type of contactless smartcard, currently being used by over 1.5 million
passengers in the Paris region - Metro, RER, SNCF and buses - but it's
only available at present for season ticket holders, including the
equivalent of weekly Travelcards (Cartes Oranges). It's only available
to residents in France, and you have to apply for it by post with a
passport-style photo. (However I read somewhere that you can buy an
"anonymous" one for 5 euros if you're worried about the system tracking
your movements, but haven't seen this advertised.)

I believe there are long term plans to extend it to other tickets, but
haven't seen any firm dates. Certainly RATP want to phase out magnetic
tickets eventually. They have already started to close down station
ticket offices. When I was in Paris last month, there was a manned
information desk, but all tickets had to be bought at the machines,
which had instructions only in French, and wouldn't accept non-French
credit cards. Not very friendly to tourists!
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

On Mon, 9 Jan 2006 15:21:30 +0000, Clive
wrote:

Does anyone on the group have any idea if the Paris (RATP?) has anything
like Oyster prepay? Thanks.

Carnet on magnetic tickets is the closest. They are moving towards
Smartcard tickets though but for the Carte Orange (their Travelcard
season). I have certainly seen gates with smartcard type targets at a
number of trial locations and I think a bus route was also in the trial.

Not aware that they are creating an equivalent of electronic Pre-Pay as
they don't really need it for the Metro or Buses as they are effectively
flat fare. I could see how it could prove useful on the RER and Suburban
trains for some travellers for whom a Carte Orange may be inappropriate.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

On Mon, 09 Jan 2006 18:36:00 +0000, Paul Corfield
wrote:
On Mon, 9 Jan 2006 15:21:30 +0000, Clive
wrote:

Does anyone on the group have any idea if the Paris (RATP?) has anything
like Oyster prepay? Thanks.

Carnet on magnetic tickets is the closest. They are moving towards
Smartcard tickets though but for the Carte Orange (their Travelcard
season). I have certainly seen gates with smartcard type targets at a
number of trial locations and I think a bus route was also in the trial.

The trial phase has ended now, and all metro stations and - as far as
I remember - all RATP buses have the readers. Weekly tickets for
zones 1 and 2 are now being issued on the "Navigo" passes. Some metro
barriers are exclusive to Navigo users, and at Denfert-Rochereau there
were some shiny new Navigo-only ticket machines, (4 of them, so at
least as many as the traditional machines), not yet in use. Perhaps
we could learn from that?

Not aware that they are creating an equivalent of electronic Pre-Pay as
they don't really need it for the Metro or Buses as they are effectively
flat fare. I could see how it could prove useful on the RER and Suburban
trains for some travellers for whom a Carte Orange may be inappropriate.

I hope they do as I don't have a great success rate in keeping my
carnets in good condition from one trip to the next. And if
implemented well it could help me avoid spending twice, just because
there isn't a direct bus - and that goes for you, too, TfL!

Thanks,

Richard.

Mike Harvey writes:

Carte Orange quick facts
...
* The weekly pass (called a coupon hebdomadaire) is valid Monday to
Sunday only. Be sure you can communicate the dates that you want, or
that you'd like a Carte Orange for the next week starting Monday.
Otherwise you may be sold a pass that is only valid for the rest of the
week.

And then:

You can buy it up to Wednesday for use in the current week, and from
Friday for use the next week. (No weekly passes sold on Thursdays)

Make up your mind!
--
Mark Brader | "I'm surprised there aren't laws about this in the USA..."
| "Of course there are laws about this in the USA.
Toronto | Without even reading further to find out what 'this' is."
| --Rob Bannister and Evan Kirshenbaum

Mark Brader wrote:
Mike Harvey writes:


Carte Orange quick facts

...

* The weekly pass (called a coupon hebdomadaire) is valid Monday to
Sunday only. Be sure you can communicate the dates that you want, or
that you'd like a Carte Orange for the next week starting Monday.
Otherwise you may be sold a pass that is only valid for the rest of the
week.


And then:


You can buy it up to Wednesday for use in the current week, and from
Friday for use the next week. (No weekly passes sold on Thursdays)


Make up your mind!

It's not contradictory.

If you buy it on a Tuesday or Wednesday, then you only get 6 or 5 days
use out of it, i.e. it's still only valid to Sunday.

IIRC, the monthly is similar, i.e. it runs on the calendar month, and
you can buy the current month up to 23rd (21st?) of the month.

The point is that you can buy it part-way through its validity, as long
as you accept that you won't get a full week's use out of it.

Dave Newt wrote:

If you buy it on a Tuesday or Wednesday, then you only get 6 or 5 days
use out of it, i.e. it's still only valid to Sunday.

IIRC, the monthly is similar, i.e. it runs on the calendar month, and
you can buy the current month up to 23rd (21st?) of the month.

The point is that you can buy it part-way through its validity, as long
as you accept that you won't get a full week's use out of it.

What a quite amazingly silly setup.

Surely it would be in RATP's interest to allow it to run for any
7-day/calendar month period? Otherwise they're just creating problems
in the form of massive queues at ticket offices on Mondays and the last
few days of each month?

Or do they do what Hamburg do and only open ticket offices on a small
number of days at all, thus saving on staff costs? (I think this
rotates around, though, so the same staff can cover different stations)

Neil

Neil Williams wrote:
Dave Newt wrote:


If you buy it on a Tuesday or Wednesday, then you only get 6 or 5 days
use out of it, i.e. it's still only valid to Sunday.

IIRC, the monthly is similar, i.e. it runs on the calendar month, and
you can buy the current month up to 23rd (21st?) of the month.

The point is that you can buy it part-way through its validity, as long
as you accept that you won't get a full week's use out of it.


What a quite amazingly silly setup.

That's what I thought when I moved there. I still do, but you do get
used to it and, given that most people buy monthlies month-in,
month-out, it doesn't really matter.

Surely it would be in RATP's interest to allow it to run for any
7-day/calendar month period? Otherwise they're just creating problems
in the form of massive queues at ticket offices on Mondays and the last
few days of each month?

There USED to be massive queues at the start of the month, yeah. But
they brought in new, better, faster, multifunction, reliable,
multilingual ticket machines, and ****loads of them, and the queuing
problem really just disappeared.

Or do they do what Hamburg do and only open ticket offices on a small
number of days at all, thus saving on staff costs? (I think this
rotates around, though, so the same staff can cover different stations)

They may do now, but they didn't then, though there are not huge numbers
of ticket windows (no need for them). What LUL is doing now is more or
less what the RATP did about ten years ago...

Dave Newt wrote:

There USED to be massive queues at the start of the month, yeah. But
they brought in new, better, faster, multifunction, reliable,
multilingual ticket machines, and ****loads of them, and the queuing
problem really just disappeared.

Come to think of it, what really changed it was the ability to buy
monthlies from a machine. I moved there in 1996, and I think they
started selling them from machines the year after, as I remember having
to queue the first few months I lived there, but not after that.