Buses, trams, metros, TER… In the midst of organizing your long-awaited week of vacation, you no longer know where to turn when planning your different itineraries?
Should you opt for a mobility application present in several cities?
Or should you prefer an application published by the company in charge of operating public transport in the city where you are going?
What are the best performing apps?
What to expect for each application?
We tell you everything.
To discover
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Applications that cover the whole of France
If you want to use the Paris metro, go to the Bonjour RATP application.
AdobeStock/daboost
Do you want to buy your coach, bus or metro ticket from your phone?
It is possible with tixiPASS.
The application is present in the twelve French regions.
After downloading it, all you have to do is choose the network on which you want to travel and pay for your transport ticket by bank card.
You will then receive a receipt by email.
When boarding, you validate your ticket with your phone (either by self-validation or by using a QR code).
If a controller asks you, you just have to present your title which is on your phone.
Many applications for planning your journeys are present in the cities of France.
Among the most used is the essential Google Maps, which has several features.
In addition to being able to compare several routes, the application created in 2005 and arriving in France in 2006 provides access to traffic information in real time.
It also allows you to visualize in virtual 360° navigation a place or a route and to add favorite places.
Finally, it gives several information on a chosen place (including its opening hours, the telephone number to reach, its website,
etc.
).
Read alsoWith these new tools, Google intends to change the way we travel
Another well-known application (but only available on iOs): Apple Maps.
Like Google Maps, it is possible to compare several routes to the same destination, to follow traffic information in real time, to view places in virtual 360° navigation, to access information relating to a place or even to 'add places to favorites.
Apple Maps also provides its users with maps of airports and shopping centers.
Apple's app, created in 2007, was powered by Google Maps until 2012.
Read alsoTravel: applications to download urgently before leaving
Citymapper was born in 2011 thanks to Amat Yusuf, a former Google employee.
AdobeStock/Gary L Hider
Another essential application for comparing the different routes available by public transport: Citymapper.
This covers several cities, namely Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Marseille, Lyon, Nantes, Strasbourg, Toulouse.
The application also includes journeys by TER and departmental coaches serving the surroundings of the town concerned.
Calculation of the different existing routes to connect your destination, real-time traffic information… The application created in 2011 by Amat Yusuf, a former Google employee, has several features.
Its plus?
It indicates in which car or wagon to get on (in the middle, at the front or at the back of a train) and, above all, when to get off.
No more excuses to miss your stop!
Also very useful, Moovit is an excellent companion to guide you on your journeys.
The application with the orange logo is operational in sixty cities and communities of municipalities, namely Albi, Ambérieu-en-Bugey, Amiens, Angers, Annecy, Annonay, Arras, Aubenas, Bayonne, Béarn & Bigorre, Besancon, Blois, Bordeaux, Boulogne, Brest, Briançon, Châlons-en-Champagne, Chartres, Clermont-Ferrand, Colmar, Dax, Dijon, Grenoble, Haguenau, La Rochelle, Le Mans, Lens, Lille, Lorient, Lyon, Maremne Adour Côte-Sud, Marseille, Metz, Millau, Mont-de-Marsan, Montpellier, Mulhouse, Nancy, Nantes, Nevers, Nice, Nîmes, Normandy, Nyons, Orléans, Paris, Poitiers, Privas, Quimper, Reims, Rennes, Rouen, Saint-Etienne, Saint- Malo, Saintes, Sarrebourg, Sète, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Tours.
Read alsoThis travel app helps manage jet lag
Created in 2012 by three developers under the name of Tranzmate, it was acquired in 2020 by the Intel company.
The application is based partly on open source mapping and partly on data and information submitted by the community of users.
Moovit also allows you to find several routes to get from one place to another and gives real-time traffic information.
The application also allows users to bookmark their favorite line locations – favorites to which it sends traffic information notifications.
Finally, you can download offline maps.
Transit can also guide you during your getaways.
It covers several dozen cities, including Paris, Bordeaux, Brest, Toulouse, Rennes, Montpellier, La Rochelle, Cannes, Saint-Malo, Nice, Rouen, Grenoble, Poitiers, Besançon, Cahors, Nantes, Lyon, Angers and Perpignan.
Like those mentioned above, the application created in 2012 offers several routes to get to a given place and shows the next departures of your favorite lines and lines near you.
Its little extra?
Transit has a feature called “GO”, which guides the user throughout their journey – notably by telling them when to get off their means of transport.
Read alsoStaying connected while travelling: have you ever heard of the e-SIM?
Train lover?
Several applications allow you to keep an eye on rail traffic in real time.
AdobeStock/PixHound
On the railway side, several applications will be useful to you during your next trip.
The SNCF application, SNCF Connect (formerly known as OUI.sncf), has many features.
In addition to comparing and buying national and regional train tickets, you can download your ticket and its QR code, consult information on rail traffic in real time, save your favorite stations or even book a car in the city of arrival of your train.
The app has been around since 2000.
For those who criticize SNCF Connect for not being complete on the issue of real-time traffic, you can substitute RailZ.
RailZ was created in 2017 by Jonathan Jean, a third-year student at the Epitech computer school in Nancy.
If it initially only informed users of the Nancy-Metz-Luxembourg line, the application was, from 2018, extended to the rest of the French lines.
Read also“Impossible to change my train ticket on the SNCF Connect application.
What to do ?
»
The difference with SNCF Connect?
RailZ is a collaborative platform, which allows everyone to report changes in rail traffic, from the incident to the cancellation of a train, including slight (or big) delays on your journeys.
You can also report problems relating to comfort on board, from heating to air conditioning and including the state of the sanitary facilities.
Most ?
RailZ allows you to chat with the rail passenger community.
City-by-city apps
In Bordeaux, you can use the TBM application to buy your transport tickets and keep an eye on traffic.
Here, Place de la Bourse.
AdobeStock/Alexander Demyanenko
Applications published by companies in charge of operating public transport in cities and regions may constitute an alternative to those mentioned above.
They are very often used by the inhabitants of cities and metropolises for their daily home-to-work journeys.
This guarantees reliable and up-to-date information.
Most often indicating the schedules of public transport lines, they regularly have several other functions such as adding stations and favorite lines, sending notifications related to traffic, real-time traffic monitoring, etc. you plan to spend several days in a city, downloading the public transport application for it is essential.
Below,
Hello RATP for Île-de-France
TBM for Bordeaux Métropole
Ilévia for the European Metropolis of Lille
Tisseo to Toulouse
RTM for Marseille
Lignes d'Azur Mobile for the Urban Community of Nice Côte d'Azur
TCL for Lyon and its surroundings
Tan for the Nantes conurbation
TaM for the municipal grouping of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole
CTS for the Strasbourg Eurometropolis
STAR for Rennes Métropole
CITURA for the Reims conurbation
Mistral network for Toulon and its metropolis
Moobizy for Saint-Etienne and its surroundings
LiA for Le Havre
PASS'Mobilities for Grenoble
DiviaMobilities for Dijon
Irigo to Angers
Tango Bus to Nimes
T2C for Clermont-Ferrand and its agglomeration
SETRAM for Le Mans and its surroundings
Bibus in Brest
Read the fileCycling tourism and cycling trips: advice and itineraries
The self-service bicycle alternative
You can find green (mechanical) and blue (electric) Vélib' bikes all over Paris and the Paris region.
AdobeStock/Eric
A fan of two-wheelers?
Several companies offer self-service rental bikes in many French cities.
The CycleNow application identifies the bike terminals around you.
Be careful, however: it does not allow you to rent a two-wheeler, only to know if there are any available in the city in which you are.
There are plenty of self-service bike rental apps, from Jump and Bolt to Lime and Dott.
Several French cities have their own self-service bike rental service.
In Paris and the Paris region, Velib', Veligo and Zoov are the best known.
The Bordeaux equivalent is V3.
A similar service exists in Marseille, Levélo.
In Toulouse, it's VélÔToulouse.
In Nantes, it is the Bicloo application that you will have to download if you want to switch to two-wheelers.
