Suspended since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, the sale of tickets on board RATP buses resumes on Monday July 4.
Tourists and occasional travelers will therefore again be able to buy a paper ticket for two euros from the driver, indicates
Le Parisien
.
Read alsoReturned to profit, RATP diversifies to face competition
In March 2020, as the coronavirus spread in France, the RATP decided to install plexiglass walls in its buses, in order to protect its 16,000 drivers.
A device which effectively prevented the sale of tickets on board, and kept closed one of the two half-doors of access to the front of the buses.
“
The consultations with the staff representative bodies concerning the removal of plexiglass on board the buses as part of the sale on board of transport tickets ended last week.
This device is gradually being withdrawn from buses.
This will make it possible to return to a rite of welcoming our customers by facilitating access by opening the two half-doors from July 4,
”the RATP told Le
Parisien
.
The alternative to the ticket by SMS
In the fall of 2020, the RATP made the decision to remove the protective walls and resume the sale of tickets on board.
This was tackled by the CGT-RATP, which won its case in April 2021. Since then, the RATP has been the only bus network in France where the purchase of a physical transport ticket at the interior of the vehicles remained suspended, underlines
Le Parisien
.
Read alsoRATP: when tourists in Paris find themselves stuck buying their bus tickets
To buy a bus ticket without going through the driver, the Parisian authority has developed a dematerialized solution: the ticket by SMS.
All you have to do is send the message “
Bus
”, along with the line number, to 93 100 with your smartphone to receive an SMS which acts as a transport ticket.
The price of the ticket, 2 euros, being debited from the telephone package.
