Oyster Paris?

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

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 <clive@yewbank.>
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!

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

Dave Newt wrote:

> Yes at the big multifare machines and the QuickTicket machines, though
> not at my local tube station, which has no LUL machines at all :-( I
> find it preferable to online purchases, cos it's quicker and less hassle
> (contrary to what you might imagine).

Good. Perhaps a poster campaign is required; "Save queueing! Did you
know you can buy season tickets by credit card from the machine if you
have an Oyster card" and the likes.

> Monthlies weren't transferable in Paris, not sure about weeklies, though
> I don't think so.

There were two different prices for a transferrable and
non-transferrable ticket in Hamburg. The disadvantage of the latter
(other than a slightly increased price) was that it couldn't be
refunded if lost/stolen, and that you couldn't claim back a single
purchased if you forgot it. Neither of these need be a problem with
Oyster if touch in/out is a requirement - a lost/stolen card can be
blocked, and you could prove to within a reasonable level of doubt
(ignoring unbarriered stations) that it hadn't been used on a given
day.

The benefits would be saving of the cost of issuing photocards which
would no longer be required, with the exception of child photocards
which could be issued centrally (and aren't really checked anyway,
given that most checking is by barriers). It'd also be a nice
passenger benefit at relatively low cost.

[Merseytravel]
> Do they still do those scratchcard day tickets? Machines don't sell
> those, and they were always one of the most popular purchases. (Mainly
> because people would try and get away with not scratching the date off!)

Yes, they still exist, but IMO it would be sensible to replace them
with tickets issued on the day on the bus and train as in Greater
Manchester.

> Ticket offices are less necessary when you have machines that can vend
> all but the most rare tickets, when they work, when they have change,
> when they take cards and when people are used to using them.

The FastTicket machines (*not* the appalling Scheidt and Bachmann
QuickTicket machines) aren't far off. They just need Rovers adding...

Neil

Arthur Figgis wrote:

> Try Hungary, where I found a fully staffed MAV ticket office open from
> 05.xx to the evening, on a line which sees 2-3 trains a day - which
> have a ticket seller onboard. About 5min walk away is a big mainline
> inter-city station, which could justify staff, but a tiny narrow gauge
> branch?

OK, perhaps I should have said "western Europe". Further east, where
staff costs can be lower, the economics are probably different.

The staffing levels in, say, Thailand, as compared with even Malaysia
(on the same train!), are quite noticeable.

Neil

Quote Dave N....

The FastTicket machines (*not* the appalling Scheidt and Bachmann
QuickTicket machines) aren't far off.

Interesting observation Dave..Here in Dublin our new LRT system went for the
S&B machines in a big way.
After a somewhat prolonged bedding-in period the machines now appear to be
functioning ok......Touch Wood.

Neil Williams wrote:
> Dave Newt wrote:
>
>
>>Yes at the big multifare machines and the QuickTicket machines, though
>>not at my local tube station, which has no LUL machines at all :-( I
>>find it preferable to online purchases, cos it's quicker and less hassle
>>(contrary to what you might imagine).
>
>
> Good. Perhaps a poster campaign is required; "Save queueing! Did you
> know you can buy season tickets by credit card from the machine if you
> have an Oyster card" and the likes.

What makes you think this is "required"? Is there some evidence that
people don't know?

<other stuff snipped but ta for the info>

Alek wrote:
> Quote Dave N....

Wasn't me.

> The FastTicket machines (*not* the appalling Scheidt and Bachmann
> QuickTicket machines) aren't far off.
>
> Interesting observation Dave..

Neil...

> Here in Dublin our new LRT system went for the
> S&B machines in a big way.
> After a somewhat prolonged bedding-in period the machines now appear to be
> functioning ok......Touch Wood.