(CTN News) – The regional transport authority announced this week that to meet the expense of operating urban transport with the expected increase in visitors to the capital, the price of metro tickets will nearly quadruple during the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Prices for individual tickets will be four euros ($4.37), up from 2.10 euros presently, and blocks of ten tickets will be thirty-two euros, up from sixteen and a half euros now.
Valerie Pecresse, head of the Paris region’s transport authority, stated in a video released late Monday on X (previously Twitter) that significant price increases will not impact residents’ annual and monthly travel passes.
As Pecresse put it, “It is out of the question that people living in the Paris region should pay for the extra cost” (an estimated 200 million euros) caused by the Olympic Games.
There will need to be more regular transportation services to accommodate the estimated 10 million spectators at the Olympic and Paralympic Games beginning in July of next year.
A special flat-rate permit, however, will be available to tourists for 70 euros per week or 16 euros per day during the Games. This pass will allow them to travel across Paris and the surrounding region, including to the Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports.
To avoid the extra, Pecresse recommended Paris residents to buy metro tickets in advance of July.
She said the surcharge will be in place from July 20th through September 8th.