2023-11-28 18:55:17
It was a promise that dates back to the time of Paris’s bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, in 2017. Public transport was to be free for all ticket holders for the Olympic events. As was the case at the London Games in 2012. But ultimately they will not be, on the contrary…
Île-de-France Mobilités, the organization responsible for transport in the region and chaired by Valérie Pécresse, announced on Monday the price list for Ile-de-France transport from July 20 to September 8, during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Prices which have provoked a number of reactions, in particular on the doubling of the metro ticket (4 euros) during this period. The all-zone Navigo pass, for the day, will, however, be cheaper (16 euros compared to 20.10 euros). The prices for Ile-de-France residents will not change provided they have purchased their tickets in advance.
The idea is not to make locals pay for the Games, but rather tourists. And to encourage people to buy transport tickets in advance, to avoid queues at train and metro station ticket counters, IDFM explained in substance. We can still debate for a long time about the fair price of transport during these Olympics. But above all, we must remember why the holders of these expensive places for the Games will also have to pay the price of transport, which was not initially planned. It was a year ago that everything changed.
45 million savings for the organizing committee
“Paris 2024 had planned to offset the cost of the additional offer for spectators of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Hence the notion of free in the application file,” explained IDFM this Tuesday, then referring to the December 2022 budget revision of the Organizing Committee (Cojo), which abandoned free transport.
Faced with the controversy, Cojo reacted this Tuesday and confirmed this turnaround, decided during the December 2022 budget review, but which had then gone relatively unnoticed. “It was an issue of budgetary balance,” it says. The compensation to IDFM corresponding to the transport tickets of seat holders was estimated at 45 million euros. It was an additional cost, which also had no incentive effect on the use of public transport, since 100% of trips to the Olympic sites will have to be made by transport. »
IDFM has therefore chosen this “Paris 2024 pass”, the prices of which will be voted on December 7, to partly finance the 225 million euros that public transport will cost during the Olympics. The pricing system adopted was praised by the organizers, because “it easily allows a spectator to go to different sites, for example from Vaires-sur-Marne to the Hôtel de Ville or to the Club France in la Villette, with a advantageous price compared to the Navigo Day pass.
Always free for accredited people
In its report last summer on the organization of the Olympic Games, the Court of Auditors took note of this abandonment of free admission for ticket holders, which made it possible to stabilize the Cojo transport budget at 176 million euros, in despite the increase in other expenses (inflation and electric vehicle charging stations, in particular).
“Free public transport tickets for ticket holders for the Games constituted one of the commitments in the application file, as part of an agreement signed in June 2017 between IDFM and the GIP Paris 2024,” recalls the Court accounts. But a promise remained vague since the application file “did not provide anything explicit on the subject”, also said the Court.
The Cojo was therefore able to go beyond its initial commitment by assuming to charge spectators for their public transport. Accredited people, on the other hand, will always be entitled to free public transport, for a budget of around 6 million euros.
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