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Paris has launched "Navigo Easy" – a refillable plastic card that will gradually eliminate rectangular cardboard tickets used in the metro for nearly 120 years.
The ticket, similar to the London Oyster Card, costs € 2 and is intended for tourists and occasional users of the subway, with the aim of completely removing paper tickets by 2021.
"It's over, the time of the notes that are demagnetizing in your pocket," said Valérie Pécresse, head of public transport in Paris and its vast region, referring to the capricious magnetic stripe on banknotes. cardboard that can make them unusable.
"It's over, the tens of euros lost because of tickets from another era," she added during the press conference Tuesday at the launch of the Navigo Easy.
Rectangular paper tickets with a magnetic stripe on the back have been synonymous with the Paris metro since it opened in 1900. The printing of some 550 million tickets each year is detrimental to the environment.
"A ticket thrown to the ground takes a year to decompose," said Pécresse. "We were late when it comes [to adopting sustainable options] to the ticketing system. "
A rechargeable travel card, known as the Navigo Card, for monthly and annual users of Parisian public transport, has been in service since the early 2000s.
The new map will address to a larger number of casual users such as visitors and tourists.
Paris transport authorities estimate that the system could be used by 5.8 million people.
In the beginning, the Navigo Easy card will only be available in the Paris metro, but will be gradually extended to the entire Île-de-France public transport network.
By September 2019, users will also be able to recharge their cards via their smartphone rather than at the counter or at the box office.
At the beginning of 2021, the small cardboard tickets for a go, made with affection in the song of Serge Gainsbourg Poinconneur des Lilacs, will not be any more.
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