Many changes are planned to public transport for the coming year, as France continues to support greener travel. Here we look at what is planned, including changes to road, rail and a ‘flying whale’.
Grand Paris Express
The first tests have been done on part of the future Métro Line 15, set to open in 2025.
The line is part of the new ‘Grand Paris Express’ network, consisting of four new lines around the capital and extension of two existing lines.
The Line 14 extension linking Saint-Denis-Pleyel to the north of Paris to Orly airport is set to open in June 2024, in time for the 2024 Olympics.
The expansion of Paris Métro’s Line 11 – extending north-eastwards from Les Lilas to Rosny-bois-Perrier – is also set to open in spring 2024, after facing a number of delays.
Read more: Paris Olympics sparked metro expansion for 1924 and will again in 2024
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Improved mobility access on Métro
A €400 million fund has been set aside to improve access for mobility impaired people on the Paris Métro by 2027. Around a tenth of the stations will be upgraded in 2024.
All new lines will have wheelchair access.
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Navigo price rise
A Navigo monthly pass, which allows users to access public transport in Île-de-France, is to increase from €84.10 to €86.40 on January 1.
This will take the price of a single fare from €2.10 to €2.15, for example.
Flat-rate rail pass promised
In summer 2023 President Macron supported the idea of a flat-rate pass to use on local train and bus services in France, which he hoped could be negotiated by summer 2024. A minister suggested it could cost around €49/month.
Read more: Flat rate rail pass could be introduced in France next summer
Tax on long-distance travel
The government plans to levy a new tax on companies managing large airports and motorways. If it goes ahead, it could have impacts on air tickets as well as the price of péages (motorway tolls).
It could earn the government up to €600 million per year.
New train services
- Spanish state-owned rail operator Renfe says it plans to open a service between Paris and Lyon before summer 2024.
- French and Belgian state rail operators want to open, “by the end of 2024” a rail line between Paris Gare du Nord and Brussels Midi at regular (as opposed to high) speeds.
- A high-speed Paris-Berlin train service is to open in 2024 jointly run by SNCF and Deutsche Bahn.
- The Paris-Berlin night train, which at present runs three-times-a-week, will become daily in 2024.
New air routes
The highlights of this year’s new options include:
- Transavia (French low-cost arm of the KLM-Air France group): Paris Orly to Tallinn (Estonia) and Bergen (Norway) from April.
- EasyJet:
Nantes to Alicante (Spain) from April, to Malaga (Spain) from June 3, to Larnaca (Cyprus) from June 30
Nice to Alicante from May 5, to Malaga from June 2, to Cephalonia (Greece) from June 30;
Lyon to Alicante from May 4, to Madrid (Spain) from March 3;
Lille to Alicante from May 1.
- Air Transat (Canadian) is continuing its three weekly flights between Marseille Provence and Montréal this winter and they will become daily from June 2024.
- Qantas is to open direct flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Perth on July 12, with four flights a week from July, its first direct flights to France for 20 years.
- Volotea (Spanish) will fly from Lyon-Saint Exupéry to Kalamata (Greece) and Porto (Portugal) from April to October. It also has new routes starting this year from Lyon to Oslo, Naples, Rhodes and Marrakech. New destinations coming up at its hub in Brest are: Athens, Barcelona, Faro and Palermo.
Ferry news
Irish Ferries and Brittany Ferries are to start offering a combined ‘Sail-Rail’ ticket for ferry passengers who want to start or continue their journey by train.
Brittany Ferries is set to add another ship to its Cork to Roscoff route, which is, for the first time, continuing through the winter with the Armorique.
With two ships from March, there will be twice as many weekly crossings through summer and autumn.
Financial reports from earlier this year showed that whilst passenger numbers on France-UK routes had dropped, they had grown massively on France-Ireland routes.
Dieppe ferry port is set to start a €3m upgrade to its terminal in September so as to host DFDS boats. The Danish shipping company has chosen Dieppe as its operational base.
Eurostar – services remain closed
No reopening is expected this year for the service from London to Disneyland Paris, or for the former stops at stations in Kent at Ebbsfleet and Ashford. The firm says it cannot afford it, though the Kent services may reopen in 2025.
Experimental electric TER trains
TER local trains refitted to be entirely battery-powered are set to enter service late this year between Bordeaux and Mont-de-Marsan in Landes.
LGV Sud-Ouest delayed
A new high-speed LGV train line was originally scheduled to open this year from Bordeaux to Toulouse, however it is taking longer than planned and is still at the stage of environmental studies being done before work can start.
Residents living close to the planned route are being asked to pay a supplementary tax to partly fund the service.
Read more: High speed link between Toulouse and Bordeaux slow going
Greener, faster TGVs
A new ‘fifth generation’ of faster and more eco-friendly TGV trains are set to be deployed in the course of 2024.
The TGV M trains are completely new, not just renovated. ‘M’ refers to ‘modularity’, with the possibility of adjusting the number of cars on demand as closely as possible to market needs.
Read more: Greener, faster, higher capacities: see new French TGV being tested
First ‘flying whale’ set to take to skies
The ‘Flying Whale’ company in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, that wants to make giant 100m-long airships, hopes to build its first trial craft this year.
It hopes it can use the trial craft to obtain authorisations for the concept so as to start commercial production in around 2026.
Read more: Airships: French company boosts innovation in aviation
